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A failed romance, but an interesting protagonist
After sitting through 36 episodes, I have to conclude that this is a show that didn't fully know what it wanted to be.
On one hand, you have an unflinching portrait of an unlikeable genius, and the story follows him as he develops empathy and becomes a cherished member of his community. But on the other, you have a simple coming-of-age romance.
Unfortunately, these two stories don't blend well together. The confusion is extremely obvious as the show is clearly billed as a romance, and yet the writers are more focused on Li Xun's character rehabilitation. Zhu Yun is mostly forgotten in her own romance story, and the imbalance is painfully obvious.
This kind of imbalance isn't new to cdramas. There are tons of female-centric romances where the male lead is barely fleshed out and his whole life revolves around the female lead. The difference though is that in those stories, the audience is always viewing the story through the female lead's eyes. We become her and get immersed in her world, sharing her every thought & feeling.
Here, however, we retain the female lens, looking at the world through Zhu Yun's eyes, but the story is all about Li Xun.
Zhu Yun's character suffers massively because of this. The story is shown to us through her eyes, and yet she's too under-developed to be leading the show. She has no life outside of Li Xun; in fact, the years that she lived independently from Li Xun aren't even shown. We just get a time skip. She takes a back seat in her own story.
Li Xun is the more pivotal character, and yet we don't get to see the world through his eyes. He remains at a distance always - even at the end. We don't get his thoughts, his feelings, his inner conflicts. He remains largely the same throughout.
So what we have is a female lead who has no legs to stand on her own (despite being the one driving the story forward), and a male lead who is the main protagonist and yet is so distant from the audience that we don't get to go on his arc with him.
And we stew in this mess for 36 long episodes. I was so glad when it was done.
On one hand, you have an unflinching portrait of an unlikeable genius, and the story follows him as he develops empathy and becomes a cherished member of his community. But on the other, you have a simple coming-of-age romance.
Unfortunately, these two stories don't blend well together. The confusion is extremely obvious as the show is clearly billed as a romance, and yet the writers are more focused on Li Xun's character rehabilitation. Zhu Yun is mostly forgotten in her own romance story, and the imbalance is painfully obvious.
This kind of imbalance isn't new to cdramas. There are tons of female-centric romances where the male lead is barely fleshed out and his whole life revolves around the female lead. The difference though is that in those stories, the audience is always viewing the story through the female lead's eyes. We become her and get immersed in her world, sharing her every thought & feeling.
Here, however, we retain the female lens, looking at the world through Zhu Yun's eyes, but the story is all about Li Xun.
Zhu Yun's character suffers massively because of this. The story is shown to us through her eyes, and yet she's too under-developed to be leading the show. She has no life outside of Li Xun; in fact, the years that she lived independently from Li Xun aren't even shown. We just get a time skip. She takes a back seat in her own story.
Li Xun is the more pivotal character, and yet we don't get to see the world through his eyes. He remains at a distance always - even at the end. We don't get his thoughts, his feelings, his inner conflicts. He remains largely the same throughout.
So what we have is a female lead who has no legs to stand on her own (despite being the one driving the story forward), and a male lead who is the main protagonist and yet is so distant from the audience that we don't get to go on his arc with him.
And we stew in this mess for 36 long episodes. I was so glad when it was done.
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