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This review may contain spoilers
Far too many toxic elements in the story
Spoiler heavy. This could have been so much better. Cinematography and technical aspects were good. The mismatched friendship had promise at the beginning and could have been a good start but only to a completely different story. Ai Di's story could have been great if he'd been allowed to stay away and rebuild a better life.
Instead we start with someone barely above the legal age limit but very inexperienced in relationships and an older mafia underling (actors' age gap is 10 years and if the novel made the characters' less it wasn't mentioned in the series) who really should know better. He gives some token resistance on age - enough to show he understands that it is wrong - and then dives in. He doesn't even do that on the risks his criminal family will bring to the kid he repeatedly calls Kiddo.
Add in (fake) amnesia, (not fake) short term memory loss (which they keep saying is temporary but show no signs of that), time jump for prison cause the kid was coerced by the mafia to take the blame for a murder he didn't commit*, another young man who gets free from the mafia but is carried back in literally kicking and screaming but it's all fantastic because the man who dicked him around for years finally decided to kiss him.
Seriously? All for an absolute kitchen sink mess of a plot which says EVERYTHING will be forgiven for a first love.
The fandom really will ignore any red flag situation or behaviour if there are cute boys kissing.
*Don't give me that BS that this was somehow ok, or it justified the character's age - he was literally too young to be given an adult sentence. Stop and think that through.
He wasn't old enough for the rest of it either.
And going to jail in the name of "love"? That's not romantic, it's part of an abuse dynamic. Oh but cute boys kiss. Swoon.
Now add in that the murder rap will follow this kid for the ENTIRE REST OF HIS LIFE. It's not just a few years lost, or his university and career plans.
I get that many fans like a lot of Drama and Tension to heighten the effect of the resolution. And yes, abuse dynamics are an easy way of increasing drama and tension within a relationship. But are those the narratives we really want to be embracing wholeheartedly when there are so many more ways to make compelling drama?
Like I said at the beginning, both the mismatched friendship and Ai Di's story had a lot of potential. They could have taken other paths, ones without abuse dynamics, to create good story and you would have loved it just as much.
Instead we start with someone barely above the legal age limit but very inexperienced in relationships and an older mafia underling (actors' age gap is 10 years and if the novel made the characters' less it wasn't mentioned in the series) who really should know better. He gives some token resistance on age - enough to show he understands that it is wrong - and then dives in. He doesn't even do that on the risks his criminal family will bring to the kid he repeatedly calls Kiddo.
Add in (fake) amnesia, (not fake) short term memory loss (which they keep saying is temporary but show no signs of that), time jump for prison cause the kid was coerced by the mafia to take the blame for a murder he didn't commit*, another young man who gets free from the mafia but is carried back in literally kicking and screaming but it's all fantastic because the man who dicked him around for years finally decided to kiss him.
Seriously? All for an absolute kitchen sink mess of a plot which says EVERYTHING will be forgiven for a first love.
The fandom really will ignore any red flag situation or behaviour if there are cute boys kissing.
*Don't give me that BS that this was somehow ok, or it justified the character's age - he was literally too young to be given an adult sentence. Stop and think that through.
He wasn't old enough for the rest of it either.
And going to jail in the name of "love"? That's not romantic, it's part of an abuse dynamic. Oh but cute boys kiss. Swoon.
Now add in that the murder rap will follow this kid for the ENTIRE REST OF HIS LIFE. It's not just a few years lost, or his university and career plans.
I get that many fans like a lot of Drama and Tension to heighten the effect of the resolution. And yes, abuse dynamics are an easy way of increasing drama and tension within a relationship. But are those the narratives we really want to be embracing wholeheartedly when there are so many more ways to make compelling drama?
Like I said at the beginning, both the mismatched friendship and Ai Di's story had a lot of potential. They could have taken other paths, ones without abuse dynamics, to create good story and you would have loved it just as much.
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