I guess binging this and not watch it weeks after weeks during the hype do change your perception of the drama.
Do I find it better than most Korean bland, sappy poorly acting BLs out there? Definitely.
But is it a good story? Well err... I'm not sure. Instead of "Secret Relationships", I would call this "A tale of 2 psychos" or "A Good Psycho, A Bad Psycho, A Non-Psycho and a cute guy caught in-between though WHY are they all obsessed with him is a mystery" (yeah I know the last title is a bit long.)
I went into this one not knowing anything about the plot. The ratings used to be way higher than this, but it has greatly diminished in the last few months... probably due to more recent viewers like me.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one... I don't hate it. But I don't like it either...but again I had all episodes available contrary to people who had to speculate for weeks about how cray cray they both were.
You know in a typical classic K drama we would have witnessed a redemption ark for Su Hyeon and I would be rooting for him instead of the obvious right choice that was Seong Hyeon. My drama red-flag lover self might be unconsciously disappointed I didn't get to watch this ship sail... because do I love my red flags turning green ( something that let's be real... is only possible in dramas).
Maybe that's why I can't like this show I don't know. Given its short length, there could be no satisfying ending except for that one... BUUUUUUUUUUT I want the hate to love, enemies to lover, the toxic overly possessive jealous red flag turning into goop and having to learn to humble himself to get his boy. Also I will always be weak against overly possessive male leads. I know it's toxic, but sorry, not sorry, this is my drama jam.
I know my heart should be satisfied with the ending, but I must be into sadomasochism, I will forever mourn that the Su Hyeon - Da On ship never was to be. Seong Hyeon is a good guy... but in dramaland, I will always root for the red flag as long as he genuinely cares ( but just doesn't know how to express his love in a healthy way), isn't overly manipulative and doesn't cross the rape line. In my head, I'm creating a longer timeline in which Su Hyeon properly redeems himself and wins back Da On who realizes it was always him, and not the other psycho. I'm sorry Seong Hyeon. You're "too good" for a drama. I WANT THE TEA.
Anyway, I kept watching because of the two nutcases. Otherwise Da On and Seong Hyeon were just too bland as characters. Could have been better with Su Hyeon as the main center of the story. I wouldn't have preferred a drama focusing on his journey to win back the blank canvas that is Da On whom he was strangely obsessed with... But the length didn't make this possible. Sad for what it could have been.
That's in the last episode so personally haven't seen this yet (I'm watching on Viki). But I got spoiled the whole…
You're welcome. I mean whether it mars how you perceive the drama is more personal. I totally get it. There are some very flawed dramas that I personally REALLY loved so when I see people complaining about the flaws... I'm like "Yeah I see, they're right... But I don't care anyway because I loved these shows too much for me to downrate because of said flaws"... But this is one case for which sadly it didn't play that way for me.
That's in the last episode so personally haven't seen this yet (I'm watching on Viki). But I got spoiled the whole…
A satisfying resolution is when it happens ONSCREEN not OFFSCREEN. Also you don't know what I want, as evidenced by your comment about the parents but I won't pursue that point further.
What annoys me is the people's opinion police, arguing endlessly about their favorite actress dramas and wanting people to like everything about her shows. Well, this is not going to happen. I didn't say the drama is bad, I said it turned out disapointing. Hype and good marketing does a lot to bring people in and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of a drama. That's a stupid argument.
But of course Fanatics are gonna complain about every single negative comments because they take it as personal.
Well I'm sorry. I'm not into fanwars and I hate zealots who can't remain level-headed about random anonymous comments online about a TV SHOW.
I'll be grateful if you could block me. I don't want to add another person on my blocking list, I have already too many overzealous fans on it, I don't want to make it longer.
That's in the last episode so personally haven't seen this yet (I'm watching on Viki). But I got spoiled the whole…
Just to say that I read your comment about the fact that you missed the fact that Fang Lei faked the paternity test... I didn't. I'm well aware of it but this doesn't change at all my reasoning though. See the answer I gave to MikaM below your comment for more details.
That's in the last episode so personally haven't seen this yet (I'm watching on Viki). But I got spoiled the whole…
I'm not saying the ex didn't lie. I'm saying the way they turned the whole thing plotwise is twisted. It's like they WANTED to make sure both sure sisters were vilains in the story because they wanted to make sure the ML remains this pure soul who will only have children with his one true love or whatnot.
For Chenchen, I've yet to see episode 32 but there wasn't even a heart to heart talk WITH HIS FATHER onscreen. We see him getting better and then it's cut. You're telling me we get a couple of pictures? Well sorry, but nope. They had room for another 8 episodes to wrap things up properly so there's no excuse.
Also, I completely disagree with the way things were handled. This kid deserves the truth after being lied to once. They're just doing what they did before in the name of protection... which would have been ok once, but not twice. They've learned nothing from the experience. However painful, the kid deserves the truth.
Either make him Hao Ming's child and give a proper conclusion or just don't introduce that last ditch shitty plot twist that serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever except showing how vile Fang Lei is, as if we didn't already know it.
Anyway, I have a whole litany of things I really don't like about how things turned out... But I won't bother writing rants after rants about it since most people have already expensively commented about it.
It had a brillant first half, and a mix of good and bad in the second half. Sadly the way lots of plot points were wrapped up i.e Chenchen, sleaze ball Lin Tao, Xu Yan's parents, Fang Lei and the lawyer... leaves me with a bitter last impression.
The drama losts its footing along the way.
I don't regret watching it, but it's one time watch. My brain will probably erase it from my mind in a couple of weeks given how disappointed I currently am. Will still watch today's episode to properly conclude this, but I'm sure if I hadn't watched it as it aired, I'd probably have dropped it at some point.
So I FINALLY came around to start Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryo.
The irony of realizing that IU's cheating boyfriend in this drama is none other than...Byeon Woo Seok 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah don't thank me! I just wanted to share ^^ Btw I was sure he wasn't even listed in that drama's casting but nope, he's here. You can check it out ^^
I don’t like that they inserted the part about Haochen not being his son and then left it like that. I’m only…
That's in the last episode so personally haven't seen this yet (I'm watching on Viki). But I got spoiled the whole ending and sadly this is yet another plot point I'm very disappointed about.
Basically they've decided to just cover the whole thing and not tell the truth to the rest of the family. SO LYING AGAIN in order to protect him but these type of things will always come out at some point. Good luck reasoning with Chen Chen at that time. Just explain everything NOW but don't wait another 10 years to deliver yet another blow or worse let him discover that on his own. It's not like they need to make that information public. They can just tell the truth to the whole family and not make the whole thing public since the public doesn't need to know in the first place.
I'm also wondering what is exactly the point except for some strange reason wanting to reinforce that the FL is the ML's true love hence per some strange C drama logic, the ML can't have had a child with his former girlfriend out of wedlock. He remains pure while the memory of the deceased is tarnished by a one night stand and a lie on top.
Also from I got spoiled of episode 32, we don't see Chen Chen again, like literally they reconcile off camera. They were so many fillers during the second half and corporate stuffs, not mentioning that dreadful episode 27 with the whole dyeing documentary that makes me sleep just thinking about it and yet they couldn't give a proper satisfying conclusion with that family drama.
OH come on'It's not like they didn't try to tell her as softly as they could to soften the blow. What did she…
Sure. This being said what you're saying only works when your future partner is not hell bent on making sure the marriage in question doesn't happen.
Even marriage of convenience require two willing people in the equation even if both parties are not happy about it. When your future partner is unhappy AND is doing his damnedest to flee, no amount of effort is ever going to make him love you, even if he wasn't gay in the first place, especially when you're acting like a tyrant.
Apart making sure he hates you to the bone, you're not gonna get anything else. And that's pretty stupid of her as well, she wants to marry the kind Prince, but who's to say that his resentment won't escalate and change him on the long run? Cruelty can go both ways in a toxic marriage. Her own mother was completely neglected by her father, she should know better than to force her way.
She only sees her own hurt and doesn't even bother to try to understand how hard it must have been for these two given the relationship they have with her. She's delulu, they're breaking her delulu, so now everybody must pay.
Also ever since Saenkaew's dad been there, Saenkaew literally has not been allowed to go out and is held prisoner in his room. Something she clearly is aware of but blatantly CHOOSES to ignore.
Self delusion only goes so far.
I invite you to read this excellent answer by Diva70 that is way better at explaining why most of us have no empathy whatsoever for Pin.
Won't rewrite what I wrote below. I'm just totally disconnected from all characters except the two I previously mentionned. There are some dramas I ended up disappointed with which were much more engaging to me from the start. This one however... left me totally disinterested from the first episode... and I love both the main pair and second pair as actors individually.
The most recent reviews are pretty mixed. It's either reviewers loved it or hated it most complaining about the lack of chemistry between the leads. I'd probably have persisted if it had been a shorter series... But 49 episodes is quite a long commitment and I've already given it more than 10 hours of my life.
Also I just DON'T LIKE Chang Ge as a character. I can't spend 49 episodes with a character I don't like.
If you're wondering if you should watch it or not... My take is, give it a try, but don't insist too much if you see that the series just doesn't click with you... In spite of the very high rating, you'll find you're not alone. People are divided between mostly very high ratings and ratings around 4/5... with a couple in the middle.
viki is such a stupid platform. All episodes are out but they are still putting up one episode a day. today 31…
Actually Viki is being pretty fast with that one. It's easy for K dramas to be released faster since it's only 2 episodes a week but C dramas have multiple episodes per week which means you need a HUGE team of translators available to translate at that crazy pace. And Viki uses translators.
iQiyi and We-Tv use a mix of auto-generated subs corrected by translators. It gives faster translations, but the quality is also lower.
For Summit of Youth, Viki didn't release ANY episode for 5 days before they made the last three episodes available, at the pace of 1 episode a day might I add, even as the official release ( not fast track) had finished a week before.
Be appreciative Lu Si's drama are as popular, otherwise, it would have been way slower.
I can't say how disappointed I am with the character of Qiao Lin. She was introduced to us as such badass girl who knew her worth and how to stand for herself... Moving to the city because of being belittled and trying her best to make something out of herself and they turned her into this weakling who is manipulated by her sleazy ex who should have been out of the picture literally 15 episodes ago.
That's not the only thing disappointing in this second half though... It's just one of the thing I find the most annoying. I HATE noble idiocy the most. Sometimes you can find a valid reason for it (for instance you DIE if you say the truth) but here, there's absolutely NOTHING preventing Qiao Lin to say the truth to her boyfriend, and then just pretend she's going along with the sleazy ex's plan until they find a solution to their predicament but does the drama make that choice? NOPE!
Everything in these last episodes is a mixed bag. Some things are good, even VERY good, and some things are just terrible.
(link not from me, I found it in the comment section). Whether this comes out or not, we don't know though.
Personally I hope she takes a good break and comes back stronger... if she does. I don't really care if there's no drama from her for 3 years... I have a pile of C dramas in which she stared in which I've yet to watch... Probably gonna take me at least three years to see them all so...
Well you seem to be into BLs... Highly recommend Love in the Moonlight. It airs on Monday and Tuesday and finishes…
Honestly try that one out, you won't regret. I don't watch lots of BL because most of them suck plot wise or are just full of gratuitous fanservice. But this one really slays.
is this going to be a sad ending ? how do you know that it’s not a happy ending ?
Honestly lots of gay people just lived together officially as "friends". I had two old neighbors older than my parents a couple of years ago living next to my house. One time I had a couple of lesbian friends coming and they kissed each other in my garden (which was visible from my neighbors' house). A couple of days after they left, one of my lady neighbor came to talk to me, that's when I learned their "official arrangement" was just a cover. I guess seeing I had such friends, told her I wouldn't be judgemental.
For the record, I asked why they didn't marry, since it's legal in my country... She explained it was too much hassle to explain to their family at their age and they preferred to keep the charade. Seems such arrangements were pretty common.
1
1
Do I find it better than most Korean bland, sappy poorly acting BLs out there? Definitely.
But is it a good story? Well err... I'm not sure. Instead of "Secret Relationships", I would call this "A tale of 2 psychos" or "A Good Psycho, A Bad Psycho, A Non-Psycho and a cute guy caught in-between though WHY are they all obsessed with him is a mystery" (yeah I know the last title is a bit long.)
I went into this one not knowing anything about the plot. The ratings used to be way higher than this, but it has greatly diminished in the last few months... probably due to more recent viewers like me.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one... I don't hate it. But I don't like it either...but again I had all episodes available contrary to people who had to speculate for weeks about how cray cray they both were.
You know in a typical classic K drama we would have witnessed a redemption ark for Su Hyeon and I would be rooting for him instead of the obvious right choice that was Seong Hyeon. My drama red-flag lover self might be unconsciously disappointed I didn't get to watch this ship sail... because do I love my red flags turning green ( something that let's be real... is only possible in dramas).
Maybe that's why I can't like this show I don't know. Given its short length, there could be no satisfying ending except for that one... BUUUUUUUUUUT I want the hate to love, enemies to lover, the toxic overly possessive jealous red flag turning into goop and having to learn to humble himself to get his boy. Also I will always be weak against overly possessive male leads. I know it's toxic, but sorry, not sorry, this is my drama jam.
I know my heart should be satisfied with the ending, but I must be into sadomasochism, I will forever mourn that the Su Hyeon - Da On ship never was to be. Seong Hyeon is a good guy... but in dramaland, I will always root for the red flag as long as he genuinely cares ( but just doesn't know how to express his love in a healthy way), isn't overly manipulative and doesn't cross the rape line. In my head, I'm creating a longer timeline in which Su Hyeon properly redeems himself and wins back Da On who realizes it was always him, and not the other psycho. I'm sorry Seong Hyeon. You're "too good" for a drama. I WANT THE TEA.
Anyway, I kept watching because of the two nutcases. Otherwise Da On and Seong Hyeon were just too bland as characters. Could have been better with Su Hyeon as the main center of the story. I wouldn't have preferred a drama focusing on his journey to win back the blank canvas that is Da On whom he was strangely obsessed with... But the length didn't make this possible. Sad for what it could have been.
I know I've signed up for torture but my heart is breaking for So. I can't 😭😭😭
What annoys me is the people's opinion police, arguing endlessly about their favorite actress dramas and wanting people to like everything about her shows. Well, this is not going to happen. I didn't say the drama is bad, I said it turned out disapointing. Hype and good marketing does a lot to bring people in and has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of a drama. That's a stupid argument.
But of course Fanatics are gonna complain about every single negative comments because they take it as personal.
Well I'm sorry. I'm not into fanwars and I hate zealots who can't remain level-headed about random anonymous comments online about a TV SHOW.
I'll be grateful if you could block me. I don't want to add another person on my blocking list, I have already too many overzealous fans on it, I don't want to make it longer.
For Chenchen, I've yet to see episode 32 but there wasn't even a heart to heart talk WITH HIS FATHER onscreen. We see him getting better and then it's cut. You're telling me we get a couple of pictures? Well sorry, but nope. They had room for another 8 episodes to wrap things up properly so there's no excuse.
Also, I completely disagree with the way things were handled. This kid deserves the truth after being lied to once. They're just doing what they did before in the name of protection... which would have been ok once, but not twice. They've learned nothing from the experience. However painful, the kid deserves the truth.
Either make him Hao Ming's child and give a proper conclusion or just don't introduce that last ditch shitty plot twist that serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever except showing how vile Fang Lei is, as if we didn't already know it.
Anyway, I have a whole litany of things I really don't like about how things turned out... But I won't bother writing rants after rants about it since most people have already expensively commented about it.
It had a brillant first half, and a mix of good and bad in the second half. Sadly the way lots of plot points were wrapped up i.e Chenchen, sleaze ball Lin Tao, Xu Yan's parents, Fang Lei and the lawyer... leaves me with a bitter last impression.
The drama losts its footing along the way.
I don't regret watching it, but it's one time watch. My brain will probably erase it from my mind in a couple of weeks given how disappointed I currently am. Will still watch today's episode to properly conclude this, but I'm sure if I hadn't watched it as it aired, I'd probably have dropped it at some point.
The irony of realizing that IU's cheating boyfriend in this drama is none other than...Byeon Woo Seok 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah don't thank me! I just wanted to share ^^
Btw I was sure he wasn't even listed in that drama's casting but nope, he's here. You can check it out ^^
Basically they've decided to just cover the whole thing and not tell the truth to the rest of the family. SO LYING AGAIN in order to protect him but these type of things will always come out at some point. Good luck reasoning with Chen Chen at that time. Just explain everything NOW but don't wait another 10 years to deliver yet another blow or worse let him discover that on his own. It's not like they need to make that information public. They can just tell the truth to the whole family and not make the whole thing public since the public doesn't need to know in the first place.
I'm also wondering what is exactly the point except for some strange reason wanting to reinforce that the FL is the ML's true love hence per some strange C drama logic, the ML can't have had a child with his former girlfriend out of wedlock. He remains pure while the memory of the deceased is tarnished by a one night stand and a lie on top.
Also from I got spoiled of episode 32, we don't see Chen Chen again, like literally they reconcile off camera. They were so many fillers during the second half and corporate stuffs, not mentioning that dreadful episode 27 with the whole dyeing documentary that makes me sleep just thinking about it and yet they couldn't give a proper satisfying conclusion with that family drama.
Is it supposed to be ugly? Honestly it makes Lee Joon Gi look even cooler. WTF?
Even marriage of convenience require two willing people in the equation even if both parties are not happy about it. When your future partner is unhappy AND is doing his damnedest to flee, no amount of effort is ever going to make him love you, even if he wasn't gay in the first place, especially when you're acting like a tyrant.
Apart making sure he hates you to the bone, you're not gonna get anything else. And that's pretty stupid of her as well, she wants to marry the kind Prince, but who's to say that his resentment won't escalate and change him on the long run? Cruelty can go both ways in a toxic marriage. Her own mother was completely neglected by her father, she should know better than to force her way.
She only sees her own hurt and doesn't even bother to try to understand how hard it must have been for these two given the relationship they have with her. She's delulu, they're breaking her delulu, so now everybody must pay.
Also ever since Saenkaew's dad been there, Saenkaew literally has not been allowed to go out and is held prisoner in his room. Something she clearly is aware of but blatantly CHOOSES to ignore.
Self delusion only goes so far.
I invite you to read this excellent answer by Diva70 that is way better at explaining why most of us have no empathy whatsoever for Pin.
https://kisskh.at/778234-salak-rak-nai-saengjan#comment-23818198
Also people can excuse her behavior however they want, being hurt does NOT give you a free pass to hurt others and being cruel about it.
First Episode was really engaging. Loved every single minute. Hopefully this one will bring me out of my 10 months long K drama slump.
Won't rewrite what I wrote below. I'm just totally disconnected from all characters except the two I previously mentionned. There are some dramas I ended up disappointed with which were much more engaging to me from the start. This one however... left me totally disinterested from the first episode... and I love both the main pair and second pair as actors individually.
The most recent reviews are pretty mixed. It's either reviewers loved it or hated it most complaining about the lack of chemistry between the leads. I'd probably have persisted if it had been a shorter series... But 49 episodes is quite a long commitment and I've already given it more than 10 hours of my life.
Also I just DON'T LIKE Chang Ge as a character. I can't spend 49 episodes with a character I don't like.
If you're wondering if you should watch it or not... My take is, give it a try, but don't insist too much if you see that the series just doesn't click with you... In spite of the very high rating, you'll find you're not alone. People are divided between mostly very high ratings and ratings around 4/5... with a couple in the middle.
iQiyi and We-Tv use a mix of auto-generated subs corrected by translators. It gives faster translations, but the quality is also lower.
For Summit of Youth, Viki didn't release ANY episode for 5 days before they made the last three episodes available, at the pace of 1 episode a day might I add, even as the official release ( not fast track) had finished a week before.
Be appreciative Lu Si's drama are as popular, otherwise, it would have been way slower.
That's not the only thing disappointing in this second half though... It's just one of the thing I find the most annoying. I HATE noble idiocy the most. Sometimes you can find a valid reason for it (for instance you DIE if you say the truth) but here, there's absolutely NOTHING preventing Qiao Lin to say the truth to her boyfriend, and then just pretend she's going along with the sleazy ex's plan until they find a solution to their predicament but does the drama make that choice?
NOPE!
Everything in these last episodes is a mixed bag. Some things are good, even VERY good, and some things are just terrible.
https://www.tonboriday.com/2025/08/zhao-lusis-almost-lover-drama-reduced.html
(link not from me, I found it in the comment section). Whether this comes out or not, we don't know though.
Personally I hope she takes a good break and comes back stronger... if she does. I don't really care if there's no drama from her for 3 years... I have a pile of C dramas in which she stared in which I've yet to watch... Probably gonna take me at least three years to see them all so...
For the record, I asked why they didn't marry, since it's legal in my country... She explained it was too much hassle to explain to their family at their age and they preferred to keep the charade. Seems such arrangements were pretty common.