K-Drama 
1
1
Thought-provoking, existential, and female-centric
Against the Current is a female-centric show about the arc of a woman’s life. It is not an idol romance. “Live” was her mother’s final wish for her, and this is the story of how our protagonist struggles to survive, thrive, and find meaning and happiness in this precious second chance at life.
The society portrayed in this show sets a perfect stage to accentuate her struggles. It is one of the most classist and sexist I’ve seen in a drama. The servants are basically in a slave class and treated like property, which automatically sets us up for some pretty brutal stuff. Women also seem to have few rights and little choice. It’s such fodder for righteous indignation that at first I thought it’s fake; but, disclaimer on the title page aside, it’s apparently based on the Ming Dynasty and quite accurate.
Lanxiang, the main character, is one of those excessively smart FLs who always seems to have the upper hand. At first she is timid and just trying to stay out of trouble, but gradually we see her do more and more to help herself and those around her. She is a bit Mary Sue sometimes, with plot armor to boot. Somewhere in the middle I did get a little tired of her constantly figuring things out and saving the day. The repetitiveness was exacerbated by having too many similar incidents glued together in quick succession by unceremonious time skips.
But most of the time, I was immersed and on her side. She’s still relatable through some real setbacks and emotions, and especially with the hand she’s dealt at the beginning, you can’t help but feel for her.
For the ML, Jinqi, at the beginning I saw some people calling him red flag or even black flag, but I didn’t really see it. To me, he’s just realistic- carries some unresolved anger, thoughtless sometimes but not malicious, accustomed to privilege, etc. Does some good things, does some bad things. Definitely a few times I was really frustrated at him (and some of his issues are so realistic, it might be triggering!), but I still found him more interesting than those cookie-cutter MLs.
But mostly, I just feel like the show isn’t really about him. Jinqi is a big part of Lanxiang’s life and certainly important to the show, but SHE is the hero we admire and root for.
In fact, this show is female-centric in an uncommonly complete way. It has the feel of being by women, for women, much like Lanxiang’s own plays in the show. (I’m sure men would enjoy this show too, although it probably depends on the man). The FL is excessively capable, able to save herself and others; there’s a large focus on positive female friendships and girls supporting girls; the struggles of women are featured regularly, and we see different ways that female characters contend with their powerlessness in a society that offers them few paths. Even the female villains are much more fleshed out than their male counterparts, with more than one tragic psychopath you can’t help but admire. ...I am ok with sympathetic villains as long as other audience share my sympathies, which it seems they mostly did.
But most important, to me, is the show's focus on the entirety of Lanxiang’s life. Her life has breadth and depth- lots of different issues she cares about, different relationships, different endeavors, moving through both bitter and sweet. She’s a full person, not reduced or simplified.
A key component of this is how the romance is handled. In this show, there is no fairy tale romance or perfect man to make all her problems better and/or grant her happiness. It took me half the show to realize that, it’s not that the romance is very slow; rather, its underlying ethos is different from the typical show.
Even compared to non-romance shows, I think this one might be more disappointing for some viewers because, first, it has the look and feel of an idol romance. With a dashing ML (money, power, looks, ready to save FL... check check check) and beautiful cinematography, you expect one thing and get another. And second, it’s not exactly non-romance either. Rather, it gives an unusual balance- her relationship is important and has plenty of drama, but it’s not the end-all be-all of her life either. The same goes for her friends. It’s uncomfortably realistic. Perfect partner or not, time moves on, and meaning, fulfillment, and happiness need to come from many different sources.
By the way, the controversial development in their relationship that finally brings them together, more than halfway through the show, made some people really mad! But personally, I thought it’s interesting and good storywriting.
This show has some really great side characters, many of whom have multidimensional personalities and/or actual development. There are also plenty of truly heartwarming and sweet relationships between children and parents, siblings, and friends. Although, with so many characters, I sometimes had a hard time remembering who is who. Knowing some Mandarin is helpful here because you can listen for kinship terms which automatically tell you the relationships; I never figured out a lot of their names.
As for plot... in the first half of the show, a lot of the conflicts seem to arise simply from the terrible social structure. It’s sometimes difficult to watch, but luckily Lanxiang has both intelligence and plot armor on her side. Then political conflicts start to creep in. Chinese shows love to go on about “for the common people”, but this show is ABOUT the “common people”, who can only do their best to accept, adjust, and survive.
Through it all the characters develop and mature. Perhaps more slowly than some like, but I still thought it was well-done and a meaningful, thought-provoking watch. The writing is quite good, often accurately hitting issues on the head which alleviates audience frustration.
But then time starts to jump. The full show covers something like 32 years of Lanxiang’s adult life, which is accomplished by liberal use of time jumps. It’s a little annoying in the first 38 episodes and then really egregious in the last 9. The worst offender is episode 39, where several important developments are simply skipped over. It’s more than just a bad episode- we’re robbed of the culmination and resolution of some of the central conflicts thus far, which is just disappointing. These, along with proper storytelling, are sacrificed for some abstract artistry which I had to read reddit to understand. I didn’t think it’s worth it.
The episodes after that are so riddled with time skips, it feels like we’re just flying in to see snapshots of Lanxiang’s life as she gets older, like a series of vignettes. In some ways, I do like that the show covers many years. Rather than just ending with a “happily ever after” while the characters are young and beautiful, we see that life at any age can be important and interesting with worthwhile stories. It might be particularly nice for older audience to finally feel seen- I certainly felt oddly satisfied watching Lanxiang fly by my own age! It also allows the show to space developments out over the years, which feels much more natural than cramming things into an unrealistically short time span.
And finally, it’s realistic. Unlike TV, real life is actually just mundane existence punctuated by notable events. This is why the show feels like it actually captures the female experience, or maybe the human experience. Life is ups and downs with monotony in between; most of the time we’re just existing.
At the same time, the time skips are really jarring. Each time, we the audience have to scramble to get acquainted with the new state of affairs, and then finally as we start to settle in and get reattached, time hops on again. It’s disorienting and uncomfortable. Also, many of the vignettes feature side characters I’d come to know and love, but then for some reason they aren’t shown again so we never actually learn how things go for them.
Probably because of all these time skips, the last 9 episodes felt a little flat to me, even though they do still have some regular pathos throughout.
The acting in this show is very good. Especially with all the emotion-laden scenes, the cast across the board delivered. The leads of course were fantastic- Liu Xueyi is a very good actor, I think of him like an artist, and Tang Songyun also does an impressive job. I also like that Lanxiang is not super pretty... she’s not bad looking, she’s just not the prettiest girl in the room. Respectfully to Tang Songyun, her level of realistic-pretty made the show feel more real to me.
This is definitely a top-tier production. The cinematography is very good, artistic and beautiful. The sets are gorgeous, like that fancy mansion/gardens they had made. Styling is quite nice, and I like that the makeup isn’t too heavy- eg for the maids, which it shouldn’t be. The show covers so many years and the makeup and styling follow, which is well done. The overall attention to detail is astounding.
The music is also beautiful, in a way that often brings tears. The OST has a lot of songs; I didn’t love every one, but I really liked a lot of them. Many pieces are haunting with lovely minor keys, and their instrumental covers are also very nice and used well for effect.
So overall, this is a thought-provoking, woman-centric show about a strong female protagonist surviving and thriving despite setbacks. It is full of symbolism, meaning, and existentialism. Despite jarring time jumps and other more minor flaws, it has the feel of a real masterpiece. I enjoyed watching it, as well as reading some of the thoughtful discussion it generated.
But... sometimes, I also like junk food! I feel like I still didn’t like this show, which is sometimes too disappointingly realistic, as much as some other captivating tales with more imaginative, unrealistic styles. It’s not the show’s fault- it’s more like, a healthy meal vs junk food.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is happy, although “happily ever after” doesn’t quite apply- this is about the whole of Lanxiang’s life, so we SEE the “ever after”. Over enough time, the people around her start to die, natural or otherwise. So deaths are happening throughout the last few episodes.
To wrap things up, we see Jinqi’s passing in his early 50s, while Lanxiang lives to a ripe old age. I love the montage of the women of the show, who pass on one by one. The ending scenes come back to the Shen family tragedy- I like that this great secret of hers was not milked for drama with some grand reveal, but rather was a silent thread she quietly carried throughout her life.
Although I wanted to know more about the side characters’ fates, I still found this ending to be fairly satisfying. With so many time jumps near the end, I felt like we got a good idea of how Lanxiang’s life went, which is much more than most shows offer. It’s also well-executed enough that I still felt reflective and sad to see the show over.
The society portrayed in this show sets a perfect stage to accentuate her struggles. It is one of the most classist and sexist I’ve seen in a drama. The servants are basically in a slave class and treated like property, which automatically sets us up for some pretty brutal stuff. Women also seem to have few rights and little choice. It’s such fodder for righteous indignation that at first I thought it’s fake; but, disclaimer on the title page aside, it’s apparently based on the Ming Dynasty and quite accurate.
Lanxiang, the main character, is one of those excessively smart FLs who always seems to have the upper hand. At first she is timid and just trying to stay out of trouble, but gradually we see her do more and more to help herself and those around her. She is a bit Mary Sue sometimes, with plot armor to boot. Somewhere in the middle I did get a little tired of her constantly figuring things out and saving the day. The repetitiveness was exacerbated by having too many similar incidents glued together in quick succession by unceremonious time skips.
But most of the time, I was immersed and on her side. She’s still relatable through some real setbacks and emotions, and especially with the hand she’s dealt at the beginning, you can’t help but feel for her.
For the ML, Jinqi, at the beginning I saw some people calling him red flag or even black flag, but I didn’t really see it. To me, he’s just realistic- carries some unresolved anger, thoughtless sometimes but not malicious, accustomed to privilege, etc. Does some good things, does some bad things. Definitely a few times I was really frustrated at him (and some of his issues are so realistic, it might be triggering!), but I still found him more interesting than those cookie-cutter MLs.
But mostly, I just feel like the show isn’t really about him. Jinqi is a big part of Lanxiang’s life and certainly important to the show, but SHE is the hero we admire and root for.
In fact, this show is female-centric in an uncommonly complete way. It has the feel of being by women, for women, much like Lanxiang’s own plays in the show. (I’m sure men would enjoy this show too, although it probably depends on the man). The FL is excessively capable, able to save herself and others; there’s a large focus on positive female friendships and girls supporting girls; the struggles of women are featured regularly, and we see different ways that female characters contend with their powerlessness in a society that offers them few paths. Even the female villains are much more fleshed out than their male counterparts, with more than one tragic psychopath you can’t help but admire. ...I am ok with sympathetic villains as long as other audience share my sympathies, which it seems they mostly did.
But most important, to me, is the show's focus on the entirety of Lanxiang’s life. Her life has breadth and depth- lots of different issues she cares about, different relationships, different endeavors, moving through both bitter and sweet. She’s a full person, not reduced or simplified.
A key component of this is how the romance is handled. In this show, there is no fairy tale romance or perfect man to make all her problems better and/or grant her happiness. It took me half the show to realize that, it’s not that the romance is very slow; rather, its underlying ethos is different from the typical show.
Even compared to non-romance shows, I think this one might be more disappointing for some viewers because, first, it has the look and feel of an idol romance. With a dashing ML (money, power, looks, ready to save FL... check check check) and beautiful cinematography, you expect one thing and get another. And second, it’s not exactly non-romance either. Rather, it gives an unusual balance- her relationship is important and has plenty of drama, but it’s not the end-all be-all of her life either. The same goes for her friends. It’s uncomfortably realistic. Perfect partner or not, time moves on, and meaning, fulfillment, and happiness need to come from many different sources.
By the way, the controversial development in their relationship that finally brings them together, more than halfway through the show, made some people really mad! But personally, I thought it’s interesting and good storywriting.
This show has some really great side characters, many of whom have multidimensional personalities and/or actual development. There are also plenty of truly heartwarming and sweet relationships between children and parents, siblings, and friends. Although, with so many characters, I sometimes had a hard time remembering who is who. Knowing some Mandarin is helpful here because you can listen for kinship terms which automatically tell you the relationships; I never figured out a lot of their names.
As for plot... in the first half of the show, a lot of the conflicts seem to arise simply from the terrible social structure. It’s sometimes difficult to watch, but luckily Lanxiang has both intelligence and plot armor on her side. Then political conflicts start to creep in. Chinese shows love to go on about “for the common people”, but this show is ABOUT the “common people”, who can only do their best to accept, adjust, and survive.
Through it all the characters develop and mature. Perhaps more slowly than some like, but I still thought it was well-done and a meaningful, thought-provoking watch. The writing is quite good, often accurately hitting issues on the head which alleviates audience frustration.
But then time starts to jump. The full show covers something like 32 years of Lanxiang’s adult life, which is accomplished by liberal use of time jumps. It’s a little annoying in the first 38 episodes and then really egregious in the last 9. The worst offender is episode 39, where several important developments are simply skipped over. It’s more than just a bad episode- we’re robbed of the culmination and resolution of some of the central conflicts thus far, which is just disappointing. These, along with proper storytelling, are sacrificed for some abstract artistry which I had to read reddit to understand. I didn’t think it’s worth it.
The episodes after that are so riddled with time skips, it feels like we’re just flying in to see snapshots of Lanxiang’s life as she gets older, like a series of vignettes. In some ways, I do like that the show covers many years. Rather than just ending with a “happily ever after” while the characters are young and beautiful, we see that life at any age can be important and interesting with worthwhile stories. It might be particularly nice for older audience to finally feel seen- I certainly felt oddly satisfied watching Lanxiang fly by my own age! It also allows the show to space developments out over the years, which feels much more natural than cramming things into an unrealistically short time span.
And finally, it’s realistic. Unlike TV, real life is actually just mundane existence punctuated by notable events. This is why the show feels like it actually captures the female experience, or maybe the human experience. Life is ups and downs with monotony in between; most of the time we’re just existing.
At the same time, the time skips are really jarring. Each time, we the audience have to scramble to get acquainted with the new state of affairs, and then finally as we start to settle in and get reattached, time hops on again. It’s disorienting and uncomfortable. Also, many of the vignettes feature side characters I’d come to know and love, but then for some reason they aren’t shown again so we never actually learn how things go for them.
Probably because of all these time skips, the last 9 episodes felt a little flat to me, even though they do still have some regular pathos throughout.
The acting in this show is very good. Especially with all the emotion-laden scenes, the cast across the board delivered. The leads of course were fantastic- Liu Xueyi is a very good actor, I think of him like an artist, and Tang Songyun also does an impressive job. I also like that Lanxiang is not super pretty... she’s not bad looking, she’s just not the prettiest girl in the room. Respectfully to Tang Songyun, her level of realistic-pretty made the show feel more real to me.
This is definitely a top-tier production. The cinematography is very good, artistic and beautiful. The sets are gorgeous, like that fancy mansion/gardens they had made. Styling is quite nice, and I like that the makeup isn’t too heavy- eg for the maids, which it shouldn’t be. The show covers so many years and the makeup and styling follow, which is well done. The overall attention to detail is astounding.
The music is also beautiful, in a way that often brings tears. The OST has a lot of songs; I didn’t love every one, but I really liked a lot of them. Many pieces are haunting with lovely minor keys, and their instrumental covers are also very nice and used well for effect.
So overall, this is a thought-provoking, woman-centric show about a strong female protagonist surviving and thriving despite setbacks. It is full of symbolism, meaning, and existentialism. Despite jarring time jumps and other more minor flaws, it has the feel of a real masterpiece. I enjoyed watching it, as well as reading some of the thoughtful discussion it generated.
But... sometimes, I also like junk food! I feel like I still didn’t like this show, which is sometimes too disappointingly realistic, as much as some other captivating tales with more imaginative, unrealistic styles. It’s not the show’s fault- it’s more like, a healthy meal vs junk food.
ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS
The ending is happy, although “happily ever after” doesn’t quite apply- this is about the whole of Lanxiang’s life, so we SEE the “ever after”. Over enough time, the people around her start to die, natural or otherwise. So deaths are happening throughout the last few episodes.
To wrap things up, we see Jinqi’s passing in his early 50s, while Lanxiang lives to a ripe old age. I love the montage of the women of the show, who pass on one by one. The ending scenes come back to the Shen family tragedy- I like that this great secret of hers was not milked for drama with some grand reveal, but rather was a silent thread she quietly carried throughout her life.
Although I wanted to know more about the side characters’ fates, I still found this ending to be fairly satisfying. With so many time jumps near the end, I felt like we got a good idea of how Lanxiang’s life went, which is much more than most shows offer. It’s also well-executed enough that I still felt reflective and sad to see the show over.
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