Love and a man lurking behind a house plant to spy on his deaf BF.
While See Your Love is not going to blow anyone's socks off, it's one of the few BLs I've seen in a hot minute which is trying to do A Thing and is being somewhat successful at it. Not 100% successful, but I can see where they're going. Someone, somewhere in the production cared about this show, and in a business churning out increasing trite by-the-numbers nonsense, I appreciated it.
See Your Love is a rather gentle show, despite the assassins. The organized crime aspect really doesn't matter, so don't be put off by it's appearance in the summary. It felt shoe-horned in because a focus group told them audiences like gangsters. You could jettison the whole subplot without changing the story all that much, so it's easy not to pay attention to it.
What See Your Love is really about is being loved for your entire identity, and how we need to take care in expressing our love, lest we risk warping that identity with expectation. It applies to both our leads in different ways. I am happy to report that both Jiang Shao Peng and Yang ZiXiang are equally developed characters, each with his own issues. No one falls in love with the other at first sight, which I was enormously grateful for. Identity matters here, and the boys take time to know each other before they're in love. For that reason, it's the slice-of-life elements which are important, not so much the Family Business/Power Struggle stuff. Don't worry, it doesn't get a lot of air-time. Much like the organized crime, you get enough to be aware that it's happening and motivating our characters, but the show wisely side-steps a lot of invented melodrama, and keeps the focus on Shao Peng and ZiXiang.
What does get more air time is the topic of disability. Jin Yun seems to do well with the sign language- it looks natural, not stunted. He's doing a great job with his eye-lines. The issues around his deafness run the gamut between ham-handed and poignant. Dude, you have to participate at job interviews, not just stare at recruiters like they asked you to fart on key.
But, Jiang Shao Peng is also a young man stepping into a larger world without the structure of school as a buffer, so I was prepared to cut him some slack. If you're worried; No, they do not 'fix' his deafness with an operation, as I was afraid they would. Yay! I really liked our beanpole of a guy, whose doe-eyes occasionally covered up a savvy brain. He has a really interesting physicality in the show, though I don't know if it was an actor's choice, or a happenstance of this being his first big job.
I liked Raiden Lin's Yang ZiXiang too. He's never a full-on rich boy horror show, nor does he end as a perfect and healed person. It is dumb that he learned sign language in like a week, but I don't think the timeline is all that important. There were several points in the show where it felt like the vibes were more important than linear realism or strict narrative structure. I didn't mind it, though I think it might annoy others. I liked that it carried through to the end; we resolved the major things we needed to, but not everything. It felt a little rushed, and I wish they had tightened it up a bit more, but I'm not mad at it. The show itself acknowledges that they have time; that their lives and issues are ever evolving. Since the show put most of it's roots into the feelings, rather than an entangled plot, it works more than it doesn't.
What absolutely doesn't work is the B couple. Lin Chia Yo as Cheng Feng Jie is great in scenes with Raiden Lin; they have a really entertaining chemistry as petulant boss and strict subordinate, he's good in the business scenes, and bless him, he is TRYING with his B costar. Unfortunately, Lin Yueng Chieh is pretty terrible as Wang Xin Jia. The part is dumb, don't get me wrong, but Lin Yueng Chieh can't act, he hasn't got any charisma, and the chemistry is non-existent. I have the distinct impression that they knew this, and a lot of their scenes were cut. Thank you for having mercy upon us.
Softly funny, with your standard number of drama coincidences, this was a pleasant viewing experience. I never felt wrathful, the female characters are well-written and fun, and there wasn't a ton of cringe to fast forward. Did it get a bit sentimental around the edges? Yeah. It also felt as if it shied away from really criticizing some parental expressions of 'love', but I think there's enough there for you to understand what they're hinting at.
Over all, a solid, unassuming watch.
See Your Love is a rather gentle show, despite the assassins. The organized crime aspect really doesn't matter, so don't be put off by it's appearance in the summary. It felt shoe-horned in because a focus group told them audiences like gangsters. You could jettison the whole subplot without changing the story all that much, so it's easy not to pay attention to it.
What See Your Love is really about is being loved for your entire identity, and how we need to take care in expressing our love, lest we risk warping that identity with expectation. It applies to both our leads in different ways. I am happy to report that both Jiang Shao Peng and Yang ZiXiang are equally developed characters, each with his own issues. No one falls in love with the other at first sight, which I was enormously grateful for. Identity matters here, and the boys take time to know each other before they're in love. For that reason, it's the slice-of-life elements which are important, not so much the Family Business/Power Struggle stuff. Don't worry, it doesn't get a lot of air-time. Much like the organized crime, you get enough to be aware that it's happening and motivating our characters, but the show wisely side-steps a lot of invented melodrama, and keeps the focus on Shao Peng and ZiXiang.
What does get more air time is the topic of disability. Jin Yun seems to do well with the sign language- it looks natural, not stunted. He's doing a great job with his eye-lines. The issues around his deafness run the gamut between ham-handed and poignant. Dude, you have to participate at job interviews, not just stare at recruiters like they asked you to fart on key.
But, Jiang Shao Peng is also a young man stepping into a larger world without the structure of school as a buffer, so I was prepared to cut him some slack. If you're worried; No, they do not 'fix' his deafness with an operation, as I was afraid they would. Yay! I really liked our beanpole of a guy, whose doe-eyes occasionally covered up a savvy brain. He has a really interesting physicality in the show, though I don't know if it was an actor's choice, or a happenstance of this being his first big job.
I liked Raiden Lin's Yang ZiXiang too. He's never a full-on rich boy horror show, nor does he end as a perfect and healed person. It is dumb that he learned sign language in like a week, but I don't think the timeline is all that important. There were several points in the show where it felt like the vibes were more important than linear realism or strict narrative structure. I didn't mind it, though I think it might annoy others. I liked that it carried through to the end; we resolved the major things we needed to, but not everything. It felt a little rushed, and I wish they had tightened it up a bit more, but I'm not mad at it. The show itself acknowledges that they have time; that their lives and issues are ever evolving. Since the show put most of it's roots into the feelings, rather than an entangled plot, it works more than it doesn't.
What absolutely doesn't work is the B couple. Lin Chia Yo as Cheng Feng Jie is great in scenes with Raiden Lin; they have a really entertaining chemistry as petulant boss and strict subordinate, he's good in the business scenes, and bless him, he is TRYING with his B costar. Unfortunately, Lin Yueng Chieh is pretty terrible as Wang Xin Jia. The part is dumb, don't get me wrong, but Lin Yueng Chieh can't act, he hasn't got any charisma, and the chemistry is non-existent. I have the distinct impression that they knew this, and a lot of their scenes were cut. Thank you for having mercy upon us.
Softly funny, with your standard number of drama coincidences, this was a pleasant viewing experience. I never felt wrathful, the female characters are well-written and fun, and there wasn't a ton of cringe to fast forward. Did it get a bit sentimental around the edges? Yeah. It also felt as if it shied away from really criticizing some parental expressions of 'love', but I think there's enough there for you to understand what they're hinting at.
Over all, a solid, unassuming watch.
Was this review helpful to you?
