UnaSpenser

What a delightful gem. Light, yet mature. All the actors are great in their roles and the ensemble humor is wonderful.

This is my favorite role to see Gao Wei Guang in. He gets to play and feel like a real person. So many of his roles have him being so stiff.

Ma Yi Li is just sparkles. What great energy.

They play off of each other, really well.

Also, really fantastic to have a story where most of the characters are smart and good at their jobs. Some daffiness, but the story and the humor don't rely on stupidity. Thoroughly enjoying it.

so, 27 is middle-aged, now?

Just finished episode 10. What horrible mother! Absent from her daughter's entire life and can't show one iota of affection? Always assumes the worst and is incessantly prepared to beat her. Who would want to live with that. I'd go live with Aunt and Uncle, too.

I should say that I figure this ability to pick locks is a clue. Since I'm watching this well after everyone else, I'm just over making guesses with myself. lol If she's not actually Quiang Yi, then this could make sense and isn't as insulting as the running down the road in front of the car. Instead, if she is someone who is street savvy enough to know how to pick locks, it makes that opening scene even more insulting.

Dai Zu steals the show. He gets a lot of space to show his acting skills. His physical humor is so over the top that you wonder about it, but then comes the banquet and we get to see a moment of extreme grace in his movements. Once he starts showing tenderness in his expressions, you realize the range of the actor. He lights up every scene he is in. His character gets a lot of nice development, too.

had the same thought.

also, she doesn't remember that she was a violin master, but she can pick locks.

unconditional love doesn't mean letting someone walk all over you. and, as a parent, unconditional love doesn't mean not teaching your child. Its a poorly written arc in the story, with a tinge of misogynist messaging that women should just be doormats for their male children.

I was really appreciative of the relationship between the two leads. It seems out of character, though, that GQF would just ghost her. Out of the mutual respect they had for one another, I would think he would at least explain why he's doing it.

one needs the actor to actually play the instrument. we are asking that the actors fake it a little better. even a child can tell when there is plucking versus strumming and when the rhythm is slow or fast. If they don't know what music will be played during the scene, then patch in some shots of hands afterward. Its very, very weird when the music is playing something really fast and the actor is lackadaisically moving their hand up and down in a super slow pace.

good to hear, since she's such an unappreciative, jealous brat, thus far. (i'm in the part where she's with Shen and I can tell where that train wreck is heading, but feel like she kinda deserves it.)

nitpick*: can they please have actors at least mimic the rhythms of the music they are supposed to be playing? Its so distracting when they're supposedly playing an instrument and the music is beating at one pace and their hands are moving at a completely different one; or when the sound is clearly the plucking of a stringed instruments and they're strumming chords.

rant over. I'm thoroughly enjoying this drama. (at episode 22, now.)

that is not the case here. she said she pitied him. that she was willing to be beaten to death because he's pitiful. its absurd.

same. the acting is lacking. sometimes you can still enjoy it, if the story is good enough. not the case here.

I didn't say he should be used to it. Or night fighting death. The reaper isn't death. The reaper (as understood in this mythology) is simply a kind being who gives souls guidance to the afterlife, once they've already died.

So, I can see the doctor being like, "I'm going to give my all to make sure people don't die." But, I can't see him having no understanding of where the reaper fits in, in the life and death cycle. The way its presented here, this doctor, who supposedly is mature enough to become a chief of surgery (don't get me started on how there are no doctors over 40 in this hospital.....), can't recognize the difference between death and a reaper? He's like a child.

The huge flaw in this story: the supposed tension between the doctor and the reaper about the taking of souls.

First: is the doctor 10? People die. Why is this something a doctor can’t face?

Second: the reaper isn’t killing people. Why doesn’t he ever say, “I’m not killing them. I’m just guiding their souls. Would you rather they wandered and became ghosts (or whatever the mythology of this story is?)

This isn’t a hard issue to put to rest. Is this the best the writers could do?

This had some clunky parts and was a bit leaden in its delivery, at times, but, by far the most rich storytelling in a BL. I almost skipped it, because I thought it was going to be a childish silly thing. Its far from it.

I appreciated most of the message of the story.

One big flaw, which was a total turn off was the victim blaming. A woman is manipulated by scheming people into leaving the man she loves and marrying one of the schemers. And he turns out to be abusive. As a victim of domestic abuse, which is chronic trauma, the writers would have been wise to leave out the claims that "I let him hurt me" and "I wasn't strong enough." Also, the idea that he was owed her love after maliciously conniving her into marriage and that she was to blame for not ever really loving him is a very toxic message. The whole way her character is framed is INFURIATING !

If you're going to include domestic abuse in your story, at least do some research and understand the psychology behind what happens to the victims. No one "let's someone hurt them." She didn't take part in what her ex-lover did (other than not reporting him. but, again, that makes sense as the victim.) It sucked me right out of the story and left me pissed off that this victim-blaming was included. Just don't.

I didn't even want to finish the last episode.

Just starting this and I'm going to have to pause and see if I can get over this horrible plot point:
what parent would rather have their children believe they abandoned them, than tell them the truth and allow them to process the loss and grief of their death? And what psychologist agrees to be part of a plan that gaslights children and traumatizes them in this way?

I absolutely hate stories which try to make it sound like it was some act of compassion to hide the illness or death of a loved one from children, or partners. Its a terrible, terrible trope and some damned lazy writing.

I have appreciated the acting of both of the leads and will hope that this is not indicative of the nature of what is deemed helpful psychology in this story. But, I have to take a break and will see if I even come back to it.

I mean, she was in love with him, though he never reciprocated and was clear about that. And she was a spoiled brat. Even if she was in love with him, the way she treated people was totally unacceptable, until the last scene with her.

All the actors did a great job. Zhou Jie Qiong was lovely and played off of Jeremy Tsui so well. But, Mu Ting Zhou was the character that had the most going on and was the biggest acting challenge of the story. Jeremy Tsui handled it masterfully. I found myself always wanting to see what subtle or not-so-subtle nuances he was going to bring to the different phases of the character's trajectory.

Ep 28 really felt like a satisfying conclusion. What's left to tell? They rushed the resolution of Ming Wei and Mu TingZhou for what? It would have been nice to see more of him courting her in his non-Grand Tutor style. Where we could see how the Grand Tutor was only possible because of who he is at heart, but that, in his natural state, it would have some different flavor. Like the moment where he's in the wedding costume and he flippantly tosses the ribbon behind him. There is quite a bit of warm humor that could have been derived from that. Overall, though, a well done story.

I'm glad they resolved the parents' old business quickly. That story arc had no humor and felt out of place in a light romcom. Too often romcoms lose the com and that was happening here. They recovered a little bit of it.

Mostly, its been a pleasure to watch Jeremy Tsui go through the nuanced changes of his character: from being a method actor prepping for a role, to being a method actor playing a role, to being a method actor who become the role, to being the method actor who remembers none of it, to being the method actor who remembers and integrates the parts of himself. He did a fantastic job with it.