Nepeta 22

I agree with that, but sadly, many dramas glamourise these types of characters to make female audiences feel they can be that fantasy woman that can be the "only" one that can change this man or shall I say be the only one he will be different to. It's basically a toxic relationship that in real life, most sane people will tell you stay away from. Also, she changed the most to accommodate his ways, and still in the final episode, he just bought a property without even consulting her. Only in a drama can this be re-branded as romantic. This is classic controlling narcissistic behaviour. Women have been sold a con-trick.

It could be... who knows, either way it's the first time I have seen something unresolved. It's a good drama dealing with very current issues and has a decent Douban rating in China. Worth a watch if you are into crime/security.

MDL is now turning more like a fan-site because they haven't given guidelines on the photo gallery. Actually this one is tame...have you gone down to Xiao Yao & Fangs of Fortune page to see repetition? There's nearly 11K of repetitive photos in Fangs of Fortune.

It was Spy Game that aired in autumn last year. I originally wanted to watch it because Tony Yang was in it, but Han Geng, Wang Li Kun & Zhou Fang all gave good performances.

Ok, thanks for getting back. Recently a spate of dramas were released this year and some were as far back as 2018! That's 7 years...I hope this one will not be taking that long!

Thanks for writing all that up. I must have missed all this bit in the end! Yes, all criminals need to be locked up/ caught or killed off. However, a recent C-drama I watched, this wasn't the case. I suspect to leave things open, some dramas are using the idea of a possible second season so that baddies are never found. Nonetheless, this drama was rushed at the end and I was expecting more twists in the end.

Totally agree. Final episode was so deflated. Unless I missed something, where did A Long go? Also, nothing was mentioned about A Dong. So I'm assuming the latter just helped ML get back and scooted off easily?

As for so-called FL, I squirmed that she is called a FL, the lesser actors did a better job. She sure knew how to make her character 2 dimensional and dare I say unlikable. ML carried the drama but the end was weak.

Yes, which is quite unusual nowadays. There had been a move to cut down dubbing in the last few years.

To see who has been dubbed or not, you can also get the name of the dubbing artist too. See link below. Scroll down to cast and you will see dub section. It's usually blank if actor uses their own voice. Ding Yu Xi has no name under dub so it means he is using his own voice. Translate to English if you can't read Chinese characters.
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A4%A7%E7%90%86%E5%AF%BA%E5%B0%91%E5%8D%BF%E6%B8%B8/57908398

I can't speak for others, but my initial comment was about the over usage of the word Bromance nowadays. Nothing to do with homophobia. I find it odd that very few took notice of posters trying to shame others for asking whether there might be romance in this drama. Aren't others allowed to even ask? It's as if it's wrong to even ask such a basic question. Like some kind of gate-keeping on the whole drama that needs protecting from women entering into the storyline. Even if the original story did not have these elements, sometimes it gets changed, so it is a legit question.

I will give it 3 more episodes to see where it goes. Yes we all have different taste, and unfortunately the comedy here, so far is not to my taste. Ironically, I found more comedy in other dramas like Fighting for love and A journey to love. Here, I feel they tried too hard to make it the central theme, but the end result is a feeling of being very light-weight and plain.

Very difficult to get into. Bromance? That's an over-used term for anything that has a group of men working together basically. For me it's slow and draggy and simply almost next to no case to go on.

I've limped to episode 5 and still the group of men do not have enough individual characteristics to make them likeable let alone memorable. They all seem bland and flat. The forced comedy is another issue. Then the "side kick" character is predictably silly for most of the time to feel any connection other than offer dated well-trodden badly timed comedic moments. I sincerely hope it picks up soon as the tempo and story telling is disappointing.

I'm getting addicted to it too. Loved that scene with the coffin. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry! So far, for me one of the better dramas for this year.

You are entitled to your opinion regarding the property purchase, but this is another example of unrealistic storyline. As if you just buy a property without informing your (new) wife. Your answer tells me you're sold on the whole relationship being unpredictable and fiery just like throughout the drama. That is classic romanticising/glorifying unhealthy toxic, controlling relationships. In real-life, very few relationships work like this. As for the FL, speaking back, yes she did, but easily outweighed by his demanding & bullying behaviour towards her and the constant setting the standards. She may have rose to the challenge, but all of this was just to get his approval. He made sure she had to be the way he wanted her to be. In the end it is her who sacrificed the most and changed the most. His only change was to finally let her be in a relationship with him. That to me is not healthy. That is how I saw it. Of course, if you feel it's a healthy relationship, good for you.

The villain was emotional throughout and I'm not disputing that. However, that was meant to set up the end so we get the usual moody ML suddenly changing his ways. Make no mistake, these story lines are made up to set up for the finale, and unfortunately, they're just not believable or realistic. The author also fails to "correct" his secretive and controlling behaviour in the final part where he just happens to "buy" FL a property without even consulting with her (isn't this some life decision?). This is typically glossed over as something romantic. I cringed. This happened in the last part. Has he really learnt anything? BTW, being alone or not having the best start to life happens to many people around the world, but it's not an excuse for being disrespectful. He consistently humiliated the FL in front of others throughout the drama. He manipulated her to the point where she was bending over backwards to "meet" his demands in work/study. Again, this is seen as good work ethic when we all know in real life this is not acceptable behaviour, yet young impressionable women watching this may think in the name of obsession it's all worth it. If this is not lowering one's self, I don't know what is. Not only is this not empowering for anyone least the FL, it glorifies toxic relations, re-packaging problematic behaviour under the banner of being mis-understood.

The character is arrogant throughout the drama. Don't think that the story throws little stray bits like what you write means he's a saint. In reality these people tend drive people away and they don't get very far. Here, the author tries to glamourise such behaviour using the "saintly" FL to do the the leg work. Gao was a stock villain character to help soften the ML's arrogance.

Guessing if it's on the optimistic side it could be this winter.

When you say added to the list do you mean MDL? It's on the list here: Qian Duo Tao Hua Yi Shi Kai.

Yes, that exterior cold, interior soft is classic and not just seen in this drama. The writer (created) an illness that hints at karma which is a lame way to make the ML look saintly. Reality is, by that many parts, his saintly status will have diminished in real-life. But this drama hitches onto this to help make him look slightly nicer. This part of the story about a rival student is created to show the ML and FL's journey and a convoluted way to show how goodness prevails. It doesn't feel convincing to me. His last act of buying a property without even consulting her shows he still has not sorted himself out (keeping things from her). Scary ending TBH.

That is not disputed, but never loving someone does not constitute a reason for anything. For instance, murderers have claimed that when they axed their wives and their kids, or some deranged obsessive ex partner when they squirt acid all over their former partner's face, they say they never stopped loving their partners. Very often, the partner has left them over years of psychological abuse. This drama gives licence to glorify toxic behaviour under the guise as "passion" or ML is misguided, but in reality, only a tiny portion might be, but why choose this over-saturated market to do another one?

Regarding lowering one's self, you might have been sold this over a long drip drip effect of what that actually means. Example, her staying up all night, working all hours of the day was just trying to win over his "approval". Time and time again this has been packaged as her being diligent and smart. But it's not smart when he "bats" her down time and time again, humiliating her in front of others including her own family.

Second example is her lowering herself by trying to get him a job behind his back and working for nothing in the beginning. Obsession is not healthy in general, but story tellers hide it well by making it coming from a female, and this is why these types of story lines are unhelpful & glorify toxic relationships.