Poppyfortea

Damn I love when we get all the answers and everything gets resolved in a satisfying way. They didn't spoon feed the audience, but I think it was still clear enough how everything played out and I really liked how everything tied in together with all the past memories.

I think his powers are like a yoyo, he has to end up back where he started with the only time difference being however long he was away, in this case however long it took him to run across town and into a burning building. So he was either in a firey explosion 15 years ago, or in a fire in the present. Both bad options. They basically cut the yoyo string by having his 5 year old son yoink him out of the past (in my head it's the exact moment he throws FL out the window).
When you're talking superpowers I don't get too bogged down in the logic of it. But it seems like their control of their power comes from their happiness, self acceptance, having their family in tact blah blah blah. So the 5 year old is a happy kid and wants to make his mum happy and just does it on instinct. He doesn't understand it but he doesn't need to because it just works on kid logic. I had my ball yesterday and then it was gone, I'll just go get it in yesterday. Easy.
I think that's also how ML was as the show went on too. He let go of a lot of his emotional baggage and fear, and just kind of acted on instinct as things kind of fell into place, which also ties in to what his dad said earlier about how finding the right partner seems to make their gift work better. The more time he spent with FL the more he understood his power and the less he had to force it.

Okay I really liked it, but I'm going to be angry with FL for a while because she's such an insufferable asshole. I get that she's got relationship trauma due to her leg and she's laser focused on succeeding in Shang Hai because of her disability, her gender, her family and society's view of her as a person. I get that and I respect the hustle.
But she's so incredibly selfish that I found myself disliking her more and more.
I was furious with her in the scene where he tried to take her prosthetic off and she accuses him of "forcing" her, but I looked past it because of said trauma, and her explanation and apology. After she explained I chose to see it as her saying he was forcing her to be vulnerable by removing the prosthetic, even though that's not what she said at all. Again, trauma. Okay. Fair enough, totally understandable. But she lacked any sincerity when she came back and apologised. It felt like she was apologising to stop him being upset, not because she was actually sorry. I appreciate she's quite emotionally closed off in some aspects, it's realistic and really well acted, and I love that when she fucks up she usually analyses her motivations and why she reacted the way she did. She can explain herself when she wants to really well, so it's all the more annoying when she actively chooses not to communicate.
When Cui Ge said he'd only be able to do long distance if he were married to the person, she latched on to that and fucking ran with it like a moron, and dragged ML along too. When he said that I was like please don't let this be her solution, and was sadly disappointed when she agreed to get engaged under false pretenses.
The summary up there describes her as brave, and she might be in work, but in life and love she's a coward. Getting engaged knowing she was leaving for TWO YEARS in a matter of days. Booooooo.
He was right to say she didn't consider or respect him at all. He knew she was going to leave and he supported her, and they were both equally devoted to their families, their work and their individual life goals. But for her to be like "meet me at the train station" and to tell him nothing is such a dick move. And because she knows how much he loves her she's confident that he'll just accept it. Her family was right saying she needed the scare because she was way too confident. Even when she came back she had the audacity to say she didn't think she'd done anything wrong. The woman tells him she's aways be there and promises to never abandon him, and then abandons him immediately. I get that that's not what she was doing in her mind, but she never bothered to consider how he would feel about her actions.
Anyway, the acting was great, the cast were brilliant, the music was amazing, their chemistry was great when I didn't want to strangle her... The goose was fab. The emotional scenes and how they dealt with the theme of loss were wonderful, heart breaking and lovely. Even though at some point I was like not another fucking funeral (which is ridiculous as it's ML's career). I loved how her disability was so intertwined with the story, and was such a driving force in her life, it felt real and really underpinned how much their school time together affected her trajectory in life. And how they used her prosthetic and leg during their romantic scenes to show her vulnerability and trust in him was lovely.
But I'm still angry with her.

There was nothing really original but everything was well done. The leads chemistry was amazing, and I had to pause and check if this was actually mainland chinese, because usually kissing scenes like some of these would be caught by the censorship.
I knocked a point off my rating due to the sister and brother second leads being so incredibly annoying, and the fact that noone was punished for all the bad things they did in any tangible way. The only person who actually lost something was ML, which is insane.

Another reason they dub sometimes is the requirement that all media be voiced in standard Mandarin and some actors speak with an accent or in another dialect. Like one actor is speaking Mandarin and their costar is replying in Cantonese. It could be a bit jarring for a Chinese audience, so they just dub it. I don't know if this is still a rule as I hear a lot more accents in newer shows, but it definitely used to be the case.
Also with a lot of dramas they're shot in such a short amount of time, so sometimes the crew focuses more on video and less on sound while recording, and then they fix all the mumbling, fumbled lines, background noise etc. in post production through dubbing.
I remember watching something years ago and struggling to pay attention because the dubbing was so jarring to me, and then rewatching recently and not even noticing.😅

This wasn't too heavy with the romance tbh, but I think it kept a nice balance between romance, the overarching search for the bad guy, and the case of the week vibe the murder investigations brought. It was different. It bugged me early on that everyone just accepted the face swap and never questioned the silliness of it or how even though only the face was swapped FL had a totally new body shape, skin tone, height, hair. A soul swap would make more sense but oh well. I ended up just accepting it as well after it became less and less important to the pot.
I also cried like a baby for Lan Jiang and for Xiao Sheng. I love that he accepted that friendship was all he'd get with FL and moved on. But he'd been through so much, and all his dad wanted for him was a peaceful life, which made his ending that much sadder. The princess was brave and smart and deserved better too, but Lan Jiang hurt.

Blue Boys really giving us blue balls with that incredibly dissatisfying ending. Bring on part 2!

Honestly the acting and the story were fine, but THE EDITING. It was the worst editing I've ever seen. Like you're talking 11 minutes cut from a single episode that removed the entire first confession, replaced with a choppy flashback that seemed like she dreamt the whole thing. It goes from her drunk on a single long island ice tea, to the next day in his house and she texts her friend that he's her boyfriend. Excuse me, WHEN did that happen? The flashbacks were pathetic. It was such a waste. I'd been giving it a lot of grace up to that point, but that was ridiculous.
And the brother and his BL coded thing with the actor was such a waste, and an absolutely pointless addition of a girlfriend for him with milliseconds to go, totally unnecessary.
Did they cut something from the beginning that would explain why she wanted revenge against him? Or was a cup of water enough for her to seek vengeance? That was so weird to begin with.
After they became a couple I sped ran and skipped through the remaining episodes. It could've been great had they just edited it well. And I'm sorry wasn't there another member of their party or guild or whatever? They never even revealed the last person at all. Boooo

Oh my god that was dumb as hell near the end there. 😂 I know I was supposed to be sad and worried about all the trauma flashbacks and the coma and everything but it was just too silly to be upset over.
When he was in the hospital like "sorry your daughter is in a coma because she got trapped in my memory world" I started laughing because all I could picture was a nurse or doctor walking in and hearing this absolute lunacy.
The reason for her having a totally different experience with his memories than anyone elses made no sense either. Like his issues were because of her sister, not her, so there's no direct connection, and I don't think a single encounter between them warrants such a strong emotional/mental link.
I basically fast forwarded the last 5 or so episodes because it wasn't remotely enjoyable anymore. But I did stop long enough to laugh at her waking from a really long coma with absolutely no after effects. She wakes up with no muscle weakness and gets right up out of the chair? And they're taking a woman in a coma on a long haul flight with no medical staff at all? I mean at least stick a nurse beside them for that scene.

A lot of comments about FL being a bit much and I have to agree. But I'll forgive her because FL and ML had such amazing chemistry I didn't really care that the plot was nonsense and she was too odd to be cute. If it was a longer series I would probably have dropped it, but with only 10 episodes I just skipped most of the weird college professor and it was more than doable.
I love seeing Chae Jong Hyeop with this golden retriever energy, and I really love when shows have different languages throughout. I dunno why it just tickles a part of my brain, so I really enjoyed them using his inner voice to flip around with Korean and Japanese.

I feel like some people might start this thinking it's a romance focused drama based on the previous work of both leads, and be disappointed. It's a family/life drama, with some romance as like a sub plot. The cast were really good, it was well acted and I loved all the family dynamics. The mother did annoy me with how she never ever learned any boundaries. Every time you thought she was about to get it she backtracked. But she was almost bearable by the end.
I loved hearing the song by He Sai Fei and Yang Zi at the end, it was gorgeous and a lovely ending to show their tumultuous but caring relationship throughout.

Overall I really liked it. They were great together, and 2ML is one of the best I've seen. He did his best to go from friends to more, but he didn't take it too far, and when he realised it wasn't going to work he backed away with grace.
I absolutely despised that snake Yi Chun with every fiber of my being. I hate that she got some sick satisfaction out of him hating her, and I hate that noone knew she was the reason his number got blocked and they almost broke up the first time. Also, excuse me but she committed an whole crime by opening medical documents she has no access to and even worse, forging medical documents. What the actual fuck. I wasn't sure if she was studying to further her training to be a doctor but wow I hope not with her ethics.
I agree with ML being scolded and FL not wanting to just forgive him right away. Morality break ups are among the shitest of the tropes. But I get that he was basically in panic mode and having seen his semi-useless dad, and struggling mother for his entire childhood, his dumping her was more of a trauma response than anything else. I really felt for him throughout, having to care for his mother and be so responsible so young is hard, and cruel. I understand his dad was struggling with their situation, but it shouldn't have taken ten years to take her to a doctor. It's sad too that anyone looking from the outside would see he was clearly struggling, dropping all his clubs, job, college, leaving, and noone tried to talk to him (except FL). His dad just let him do that and was like thanks son for compromising your happiness once again. Booooo

I'm a spoiler seeker, but I never regret it thankfully. I will have a notion for some plot twist or other and I just HAVE to know immediately how far off I am. I've been known to pause a movie halfway to go read the entire plot on wikipedia, and then go back happy in the knowledge there'll be no surprises. 😅 But I'm pretty sure I'm an outlier there.

I can't wait till he makes his way to the longer form drama scene. His acting is really great in all the mini dramas, and I mean anyone with eyes can see he's ridiculously good looking, so he really should get some long form dramas. I think he'd have to get ML roles right away though because I honestly don't know who you could cast as ML to make him a believable 2ML.😂😅

Well I feel validated. I love how the characters in dramas always just ignore peoples glaring mental health issues or find the absolute silliest cure.

Okay so I'm binging this and I'm at the halfway point, and since like ep 7 or so I'm positive Yefei is dead, FL has repressed this fact and for some reason they're all just letting her be, which is wild.
She's the only one emailing her, noone else talks about her and they all just sort of nod when she's mentioned. And Guan Chao was really struggling to explain to his wife, which makes sense, because noone wants to have to compete with the memory of an ex, but NOONE wants to have to compete with the memory of a deceased first love. You can never win that fight.
I imagine all these trips down memory lane will eventually help her recover the traumatic memory and she'll heal or whatever, but I can't fathom why they're just letting her be. She needs therapy. And if this was some sort of group effort to help her heal why tf did half of them ditch her for 12 years? Assuming YiFei died sometime after graduation how could they just leave FL in her trauma like that? I imagine they'll only half explain, resolve it using the game (which is why he's so focused on it, some sort of play therapy for her), I will be unsatisfied with the reasoning, and then it ends.
I'll come back after binging the rest in a day or two to see how far off I am. I've seen this exact plot twist used in another cdrama, to a lesser extent as the friend lived for more of the story, and that one did kind of surprise me, but if Yifei was alive, THAT would surprise me here.

Edit after finishing:
I was pretty on the nose I think. They did explain a better than expected, and I was unprepared for the absolute trauma dump of what happened to YiFei. That was incredibly grim. She deserved so much better. And I can understand the severe PTSD. But maybe instead of ignoring FL's trauma for 12 years while developing a game-cure her family should have admitted her into a psychiatric facility where professionals could assess her and help her. Like nah we'll let the teenagers try it first and when that doesn't work we'll just leave her be for a decade and let them try again. I'm sure that'll be just dandy. Plus we don't know if they just sat her down in a little support circle and calmly told her what happened how she'd react. All they ever did was blind side her with a massive shock. The theatre, and the thing with YiFei's dad were like getting slapped in the brain, there had to be an easier way.
And so we learn that ML was just creeping around for a decade and watching her from a distance. Weird, but okay sure. The reasoning for ignoring her like that was not good enough though. Oh he was afraid he'd trigger her fainting. But like at least try it once. Just have him come back naturally and sort stuff out, not mentioning YiFei, see if it works. If she fainted it's not like she'll remember anyway. 🤷‍♀️

It was fine. The generic mini cdrama fare. Hate the ending though. Dude wakes up from a year long coma and is able to just hop out of bed and go for a little stroll, no Physiotherapy needed, and then has amnesia too? Pfft. Totally unnecessary, so I'm choosing to believe he's faking it for giggles (the whole theme of the drama was acting so why not).
The leads had really great chemistry, and I've love to see them again in other stuff, especially ML.

ML seems to have amnesia due to either a head injury from the car, or year long coma... But I hate that ending, and because the whole theme of the drama was acting, I decided to believe he's faking it just for giggles.

The acting is mostly great, the main and side characters are all written with sufficient backstory and motivations that they all seem really fleshed out, and the story was pretty original. But I really struggled to finish it.
I just didn't care about what was happening to anyone. I really didn't like FL until over halfway through. She just had such a garbage attitude for a good chunk of the show.
The only characters I actually cared about were Kim Kyung Nam, and Woo Do Hwan in both roles. WDH especially was so good at both roles, and he felt really believable. Every other person with two roles either felt like it was just the same role in a bad mood, or just a bit meh. Maybe that's down to noone else having a dual role with both sides being so present in the story. But even FLs alter Luna was just blah.
Usually I like just a bit of closure at the end with most things tidied up for the viewers, but this was next level in tying up lose ends, and I don't know if I liked it. It leaves nothing open to our imagination. But at least we know there's absolutely no need for a follow up.
One stray thought I had, if FL and ML eventually have kids, of what nation would they be a citizen? Are they the future leader of the Kingdom or a cops kid, and who's name goes on the birth cert?

I don't remember everything now as clearly as when I just finished. But I do remember wanting to root for FL because she was trying to get out from under a very controlling parent. Trying and failing. But I just couldn't even pretend to root for her any more when she actively chose to hurt ML in a way that she knew would hurt him very deeply. 🙈