MollySF

So true. The FL's personality is so drab and colorless. There is no spark of animation or expressiveness in her character. Its not looks because she is pretty in a non- dramatic way, anyway looks are God given, so we cant hold anyone responsible for it. But its the way her personality looks so pale and underwhelming.

Dropping this at #16, Tried very hard to feel interested but the story relied too much on repetitive tropes of FL falling into ML's arms, senseless plot turns and characters doing 180 degrees to really showcase the initial promising premise of a man who abhors lies and his relationship with a woman who is constantly fibbing.

The FL's lies are too many and too glibly delivered. Its almost like she has a pathological dishonesty syndrome-- even incidents where she could have spoken the truth , she was shown to lie. If your boss calls you to ask where you are, why would you lie if you were rushing to see someone who had an accident even if he was an ex bf? I just found the way she would never tell the truth a little disturbing.

In fact this show made me think about how much we expect other people to be honest. Our whole social structure is based on the fact that the degrees of closeness we feel with a person is correlated to their honesty with us. Would we want our child, our husband, our parents, our friends, our coworkers to lie so effortlessly to us? What else is love built on if it is not built on trust?

Same ques through out the drama. Made me feel uncomfortable because I have a teenage niece who is taller than the FL and it makes me hyper sensitive as we teach my niece how to tell between acceptable and unacceptable behavior by anyone.

Agree with you, but honestly how is she going to be roles that are more mature while looking like that? Its a chicken and egg story.

I have a genuine question here- do we normalise physical mistreatment when we have short characters,? Why is it that short actresses are physically manhandled so much. Why do all MLs end up disrespecting physical boundaries with short FLs. I mean a girl's body is her own( as is a boy's body) , would anyone be casually lugging about a taller woman, casually lifting her and putting it down, or casually catching her by the scruff of the neck? Why do MLs treat short FLs like a beloved pet? Its like the director also doesnt treat a short FL like a mature human being deserving of respect and physical boundaries.

The FL is a decent actor and she has performed the same role with the same verve in many dramas. I feel sorry for her getting typecast like this because of her physical attributes but it cant be helped. She really looks like an underdeveloped 14 year old. It is a stretch of imagination to even think of her as a 20 year old let alone her real age of 29 years..
I may be in a minority here but it makes me a tad uncomfortable seeing someone who looks like a child performing slightly risque scenes like kissing. I guess we in the West have been really sensitized towards any kind of under-age activity.

Case in point, Cuties, the Netflix movie which triggered #cancelnetflix because of showing underage sexuality. Several girls were actually above the legal age of consent but the American audience could not tolerate it.
Ariana Grande is a good example but she doesn't look under age or below the age of consent. She has a tiny frame but her looks are not middle schooler. Thats the point I was trying to make. Peace out

Woah! The FL calls the ML trash, beggar, thief, low-born , low-life multiple times.. Her language is too violent and crude. I cant imagine how the ML continues to feel love for her unless he is a masochist. Props to ML for his forbearance. Also in these politically correct times, I cant help thinking what if it was the ML saying similar things to the FL and slapping her or trying to slap her at every instance-- it would constitute abuse, but because the abused here is a ML .... Can this kind of verbal abuse be condoned or passed off as normalized behavior ? And its not just the FL, her grandmother is equally a bigot given to verbal abuse, her mother routinely abuses daughter of a maid and all characters look down upon children of underprivileged class or blue collar workers. -- Distressing. Guess winds of change havent reached Thailand yet that is why such regressive behavior is deemed correct without a value judgment .

This drama gives such a deja vu feel. Its like you have seen this same plot, same characters a million times before. Esp the FL.Her interpretation of her character is always the same whichever drama she is in. Her facial expressions, body language, dialogue delivery remains the same till all characters blur into one. Her range is very limited.
Also her extremely "youthful"(!) looks make it slightly unnerving to watch someone who looks like a middle-schooler enter into a passionate romance. I am sorry but living in these hyper-politically correct times, makes one conscious of these facts-- like sexism or ageism. She really doesnt look old enough . If it was an American show it would have been taken to the cleaners by the audience for daring to show someone who looks under-age enter into a romance, but I guess China doesnt have those tight perceptions yet.

Forever Love is a lovely story

I agree. Forever Love is kinda perfect. Very sensible characters and a great progressive believable story about school friends forming a start up. Forever Love deserves upvotes so more people watch it. I would rate it above PYHOMS

The FL is a good smart character, but is it only me who finds her quite a bit older than the ML? ML really looks young and fresh whereas from certain angles the FL looks 5-7 years older. I am sorry if someone feels hurt; just trying to confirm my own understanding

Thank you for the discussion and the recommendations. Brainless FLs with very little self awareness and lacking in common sense-- I dont know why they are so popular with C dramas. I guess they want to reproduce the American ditzy blonde but it doesnt work at all. Maybe the trope is popular in China is all I can say.
Can I add a wonderful, story called Forever Love with a really smart FL. She s a balm to the heart and wonderfully enacted by an Chinese American 18 year old girl. Please do check it out

I agree.

Thank you for your article.. Your article really hit the nail on the head for me. Yes the plot had great potential because of the age difference and also the celeb-commoner difference. But the writing never matched up to the potential.

I have personally seen real life relationships between older women and younger men have a lot of drama because of societal stereotypes-- way more heartbreak and struggle before it all settles down. I failed to see that internal struggle in the protagonists. Specially in the FL-- to me honestly the drama failed because of her ditzy behavior-- So despite all her worldliness, experience and success, she is happy to follow the lead of the ML , because hell, how can a woman be shown to have maturity? The trope of the woman who requires taking care of whether they are 16 or 36 was such a letdown. Can makers please show women who are not ashamed to appear capable, mature, understanding and yet lovable? Do women have to be un-awakened virginal sleeping beauties waiting for Prince charmings ? It would have been so refreshing having her take the lead in the relationship, cut down his sheer cockiness/arrogance and made for some genuinely funny lovable moments.

The acting of the FL left much to be desired . What a contrast from Sunshine of my heart where she had sparkled. Also somehow she seemed tired-er and not as fresh as she had seemed in that show.

The ML wasnt bad but his arrogance to his room mates deserved to be highlighted as a personality flaw, rather than make him the epitome of all things good. Still the writing of his character was fleshed out and he acted in character too, so no complaints.

Above everything, this show failed because of lazy writing and a commercial attempt to milk out as many episodes out of a thin storyline. For instance using gaming to show the development of the romance... sorry in which universe do the makers live in? It may have been believable a few years back when not too many women were into e-sports but now a lot of viewers themselves understand the e-games world to believe the picturization.

I am in mourning because they let such a rich subject go to waste