Platinum Fox

Actually you are not the only one who has suggested this. And I will not attack you for it. It depends on what kind of acts you consider grooming, so whether it is grooming behavior is up to you.

For me, personally, I saw no grooming, but I can see how him going to her school, his essay, and giving of presents could be construed as grooming (what was in it for him). This drama (which many people consider a fluffy, simple love story) is actually a social commentary on the age of consent law in China. In China, the age of consent is 14. This means that any person 14 years of age is fully developed mentally to consent to sex with any person 14 and above. So again, I can see where you could construe his actions as grooming as he waited until she was the age of majority to pursue her sexually.

With that being said, the screenwriter played the "what if" game (a concept found in The End of Eternity, the book shown at the beginning of the drama several times). What if we allowed DJX and Sang Zhi to engage in a sexual relationship when she is 14? It would be legal for both of them. What would be the costs? A hundred years ago we would not have thought twice about this age difference. It is not until modern times have we changed our definition of childhood. Making you and others feel like this is a drama promoting grooming. People in China are working hard to get the consent law changed to at least 16.

In fact this drama is the exact opposite. It is actually giving reasons why 14-year-olds and 19-year-olds should not engage in a romantic/physical relationship. One is the height difference (DJX looks like her dad) and the vast difference at the emotional/mental level. This is why the screenwriter went with the scenario of making him literally be her brother when she is 14. It is to ease the mind of the viewer (but also to make us think about this pairing). However, with this decision there is a cost.

When she is 17 and has now "grown up" in height and a little more in maturity, she is ready to explore her sexuality, and she would love it to be with DJX. However, both of them perceive each other as brother and sister. This is the cost as it creates the unrequited love story and DJX becomes the perfect brother that Sang Zhi has always wanted.

After the second temporal node she is the age of majority and has even done her military stint. Both of them still view each other as brother and sister, but once he learns that she likes him, they start to date and play house pretty quickly. It is because they have already been through the getting to know you part. He has known her since she was 14, but DJX still had many things to learn about her (her allergy to milk). So this is the end result of their two previous interactions. Again, the cost of this is viewers thinking it is grooming when it really isn't.

The drama asks, "is it morally right for a 14-year-old and a 19-year-old to engage in a sexual relationship?" The answer is, no, as the two ages are vastly different in height and maturity. The question is asked again when she is 17 and he is 22 and the answer is still no. Even though she has caught up to him in height, they are still vastly different in maturity. The drama is saying wait until each person is of the same height and maturity level to start a physical relationship.

It also asks the question, when is the right time for girls to begin their sexual journey and with whom? Notice they wrote in two love interests her age, but she chose DJX the older guy over them. If she had chosen them we would have chalked it up to teenage sexual exploration.

Hope this helps.

1) His side no, but on her side there is a crush, and if he would have paid any attention to her at the age of 14 she would have been thrilled.

2) In Chinese law a child is considered someone 13 and under. Minors are considered 17 and under. Eighteen-year-olds are considered adults to the extent that they can work, own a business, do their military duty, drank, enter into business deals, buy a business, own a home, etc. They are not, however, old enough to get married. The law in China states that any girl or boy 14 years of age is considered mature enough to decide with whom they will have sex with whether the person is 14, 19, or even 50. However, there are costs to this, and why so many people are trying to get it raised to at least 16, especially for girls.

In my country if a 19 year old would have sex with a 14 or even a 17, it would be considered statutory rape. This is not the case in China.

Even if you don't read the whole paper, at least read the abstract at the very beginning of the paper.

https://rgsa.openaccesspublications.org/rgsa/article/view/7190#:~:text=Abstract,age%20of%2016%20is%20higher.

This is why this drama is so much more than a simple love story about a 14 year girl who falls in love with an older guy and why the novel The End of Eternity is important to the story.

Again, thank you for the discussion.

Thank you for taking the time to read the discussion I had with the reviewer and all of the discussions we have had past and present. You are the one who has helped me understand what is going on in this drama the most, even though we have each drawn very different conclusions from it. That is okay. You are very passionate about it and so am I. We agree on one thing, DJX is a good guy and a good role model for all males in any country. Someday I hope you read The End of Eternity for yourself. For me, it turned this drama from a one to a 10 rating as it answered many questions that I had at the end of the drama.

With that said, there are a few points that I feel must be clarified. Sang Zhi is 14 when we first meet her. She is of the age of consent. She can decide for herself if she is ready for sex with anyone at any age at or above 14. DJX or even the boy who liked her at the same age would not have been breaking any laws if the two of them had decided to have sex when she was 14, 17, or 19. However, the drama is asking, "Is it morally right for DJX at 19 or even 22 to have sex with Sang Zhi when she is 14 or 17?" They are saying, no. Fourteen and seventeen year old's are still children, but at 17 there is a gray area. She falls in love with him and because of her perception of him at this age, creates the unrequited love story of Hidden Love and gives her the perfect brother she has always wanted.

There is one thing that I don't understand from your post. You wrote, "He was a green flag till the point he told SY that little demon asked his help, and promised her to talk with him about teacher who asked to see one of her parents." What makes him a red flag at this time?

Again, thank you for the discussions past and present.

Yes, you would hope that they would try to find out why the parents were killed. Although after watching so many dramas where this happened, no one really asks why just who. Was it a justified killing on her part without a doubt, but who would believe her. This is why they had to make Chai into the bandit in order for ZHY's story to be believable.

Actually, they are quite justified in believing the maid. ZHY was home alone with her adopted parents at the time and the place hadn't been terrorized by bandits in 10 years due to its poor economy. There would have been no reason for bandits to attack the home. This could have easily been confirmed by asking people in the Danzhou province which FYX did when he went to the province. FYX knew before she even confessed that she killed the adopted parents. He also knew there had to be a good reason for her killing them. Logic says she killed them, but who would believe her self defense plea.

The reason Concubine Zhou wanted to get the adopted parents memorials into the ancestral hall is that ZHY murdering them would be equivalent to murdering her actual parents. This would make her crime of murdering them a capital offense which is punishable by death. This is why ZHY's body guard took the blame. Concubine Zhou wants ZHY dead.

Yes, which makes it perfect for the message the drama would like to say when Sang Zhi is 14 and 17. The term Teeny Weeny has various connotations and creates an image of something or someone of small stature (children). One of the themes of this drama is the height difference between Sang Zhi and DJX. Her height at 14 makes DJX look like her dad. Which creeps many viewers out. This is intentional by the director and writer. They want the audience to think about what image is created when a 14 year old Sang Zhi is next to 19 year old DJX (a father and daughter). If you were a man would you want to have sex with your daughter?

Now look at the brand name Teeny Weeny in connection with the period scene. Why do they pick out a skirt for her? She has gotten her period (which marks a girl ready for childbearing or in some cultures a woman of marriageable age). When we think of someone being teeny weeny, we think of children (not a full grown person). At 17 teenagers are still children. However, one could argue she is a woman ready to bear children because she has her period. So at what age and with whom should girls be able to start their sexual exploration? The drama definitely puts it at around 18/19. Yet we know she would have consented at 17 because of her fox picture, but DJX is a good guy.

A hundred years ago we wouldn't have thought twice about a 14 year old and a 19 year old getting married because the mindset was that children are just little adults. We now know through research that that is not the case. Have you watched A Female Student Arrives at the Imperial College? Zhao Lu Si plays a 14/15 year old girl who goes off to college and falls for a man (her brother's friend) who is 19-22. The audience doesn't think twice about this as this was custom in historical times.

Thank you for the videos on her campaign for Teeny Weeny. Here is a link to a conversation I had with a reviewer who had actually read The End of Eternity.

Read the review first and then our discussion.

https://kisskh.at/profile/bokminthe/review/301991

You will understand what I mean.

MIkaM, I know you and I see this drama very differently and that is okay. But the showing of these brands when they do actually enhances the drama. Most dramas if they do product placement do it in a superficial way. In Korean dramas they eat at Subway. It doesn't mean anything special to the drama. This group actually found a way to have the brands mean something to the drama. I wouldn't have thought this until I read The End of Eternity. jmo

Thanks for the information. The director and writer were quite clever and creative with the product placement. They really enhance the story.

Thank you, I did not know that she endorses Guerlain. Does she also endorse the Teeny Weeny clothing line (the dark skirt from the period scene) and the jewelry given to her by DJX? What great easter eggs!

You're welcome. I had a good time writing the list. I also forgot to add her red dress and black cape and her childish voice.

There are many.
the sun shining on him when he is 19 and 22
the fox toy
the book The End of Eternity
the going back and forth between the present and the past and jumping to the future
the math they are doing on the board (14)
her bird picture and story (14)
the milk bottle (more than one for this one)
her bear blanket
the dog stuffed animal
the light bulb
when he calls her a puffer fish
the bear stuffed animal
the license plate
the fox picture
her bear backpack
the letter
her dog essay about her brother
the balcony scene
the growing flower in the museum
the tsunami wave
her number for the field day
the perfume DJX gave her (18th birthday)
the song on the radio in the car
the claw machine
the bike ride
the flowers she gives him at graduation
the tie she gives him at the airport
When they look at each other at the same level (when she is 14 and he is 19 and again when she is 18 and he is 23).

These are just the ones off the top of my head. I know there are more.

Her baby doll dress and his glasses, cashmere sweater, dress shirt, and slacks. The museum flower, the milk bottle on her cheek, her fox picture signed Rosy

You and many others have felt that way and it is intentional by the writers. They want the audience to think about the age gap when she is 14 and he is 19 and then again when she is 17 and he is 22. There are very real differences between these ages in height and maturity level. I don't know if you know this, but the age of consent in China is 14. People have been working to get it changed to 16, but no luck. This drama is a social commentary on the age of consent law. If you can't change a law, change the people's mindset about the law. jmo

I don't know where all the discussions went on this drama, but a poster wrote that the license plate did indeed mean that. It is just one of the many easter eggs in this drama, just like the stuffed bear, the fox, the dog, and her drawing of a puffer fish.

Others have recommended that one as well. I don't watch too many modern dramas.

This was my first drama with the male lead. I enjoyed his performance. Thank you for the recommendation. I am watching him in Medical Examiner.

Hope you enjoyed it. I have noticed that many of the current dramas are pushing off the marriage of the female until much later, even in the historical ones.

You and many others have felt that way and it is intentional by the writers. They want the audience to think about the age gap when she is 14 and he is 19 and then again when she is 17 and he is 22. There are very real differences between these ages in height and maturity level. I don't know if you know this, but the age of consent in China is 14. People have been working to get it changed to 16, but no luck. This drama is a social commentary on the age of consent law. If you can't change a law, change the people's mindset about the law. jmo

Thanks for the friend request. I'm glad you are enjoying this. I did enjoy the modern romance You Are My Destiny the newer version.

Thank you for the information about Sang Zhi and Yi Fan. That scene was not in Hidden Love (it didn't need to be), but it does explain why Sang Yan was mad at Sang Zhi for going to Yihe. Also, Sang Zhi wouldn't mention DJX at all during that conversation because she was already ghosting him at the time (this was the second temporal node of Hidden Love).

I think why people are getting hung up on why Sang Yan is not Sang Yan is because in this drama he has a different role than in Hidden Love. In Hidden Love he was a brother to Sang Zhi and a friend to DJX. Sang Yan and DJX are foils for each other. In The First Frost, Sang Yan's main role is that of a romantic. His foil must be the Su guy. This is where BJT makes the Sang Yan character his own as we do not know very much about Sang Yan's romantic side as it is never discussed in Hidden Love. The difficulty in this, is that we still have to believe that he is the brother of Sang Zhi from Hidden Love, and this needs to be done right away within the first few episodes and throughout the entire drama, especially for viewers who watched Hidden Love first. If you watch Hidden Love second, it would be the same story. Who is the real Sang Yan? Both of them, he is just playing a different role in two different stories.

Just from the comments, it seems BJT pulled it off. For me, it wasn't the acting that kept me from watching the rest, it was the story. This story is generic. The Sang Yan character could have been named anything, unlike Hidden Love which had something deeper going on than just the simple story of a young girl's crush on an older guy.

I watched the scenes with Sang Yan and Sang Zhi when they are standing in line again. As they are talking you get a hint of the narcissistic Sang Yan when he talks about getting into Nanwu without really studying and saying she is not as good as him and could still study abroad. This is something Sang Yan would say, but Victor Ma's Sang Yan would have cocked his head back and been charmingly grumpy about it, not this quiet, serious, reserved, mousy guy BJT played. This is more DJX's style. We also get a hint of Sang Yan's comedic side when he holds the phone up out of reach to make fun of her height. This is something that Victor Ma's Sang Yan would have done, but in a more comedic way to make people understand that this is what he is doing. I am betting most people probably didn't realize why he was holding the phone so high. It didn't dawn on me either until I watched it again. The audience can explain this difference in personality by saying they are in public, he has just reconnected with his old flame, he has matured, or DJX rubbed off on him, but his character still lacks that fun, confident character that we knew and loved from Hidden Love.

But thinking about it some more there is one other thing we know about Sang Yan from Hidden Love. He doesn't really know how to handle serious conversations. These were passed off to DJX. Which is why he seems to ask remorsefully about DJX being her real brother.

For me, it was almost like the writer, director, and actor were trying to help the audience transition from Victor Ma's interpretation of Sang Yan to BJT's interpretation of Sang Yan which is fine. But, I am betting there are not too many scenes with his sister and parents in the drama.

Please don't let my interpretation spoil your enjoyment of the drama. Realize that Hidden Love and The First Frost have very different purposes for the role of Sang Yan. If you enjoyed his serious, romantic side that is all that matters.

Again, thank you for the discussion. Someday I may watch it, but I am not a big fan of modern romance dramas (to childish for me). I just watched what I needed to get my answers from Hidden Love.