any_anka

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest it was solely an American thing. I did - however - remember that while it was invented by some European guy, there was this dude in America who popularised it and made it more "accessible" with simplifying the procedure (and thus widespread). I wrote what I remembered and, I admit, I didn't do any double-checking in this regard before writing the above comment. So, sorry for that ;)

Yes, I'm aware it wasn't an only option but it was fairly popular and I guess with the very fact how absolutely barbaric this procedure is with nowadays' hindsight, such popularity was enough for me to consider it "en masse" (you know, as opposed to, it should never be done ;))
But once again, sorry for any over exaggeration on my part!

Actually, funeral homes have to be on call 24/7, similar to hospitals.

As for the second part of your comment, I honestly don't know how competitive the industry could get 😋

I mean... I don't know if he's necessarily a psychopath (that might be a bit too extreme of a "diagnosis"), but he definitely is a disturbed and manipulative individual. Definitely not healthy for Sei to be around.

Oh, you won't find me making excuses for Fujisawa. I felt weird about his character since the very beginning of the drama. Whenever him and Sei had a shared scene, there was this suffocating, oppressive atmosphere around.

Huh, same. The first thing I thought of when watching this was Eternal Butler 😋
It looks better than it, though, in my opinion at least. I dropped EB, but I am inclined to give this one a chance. I think Taiwan is pretty good at making those campy, comedy BLs (cases in point, HIStory 2: Crossing the Line or You Are Mine, which I know MDL crowd didn't like that much, but I loved), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this will be another example of a successful one and not another EB.
The acting alone is better, so I'm willing to be lenient at least for the next one or two episodes ;)

I mean... Such things could even differ by countries, needless to say by eras. The modern treatment of mental illness (and thus, the relationship between the patient and the psychiatrist) is a concept of the recent hundred years if not younger. "Hysterical" women were still lobotomized in the 1950s America en masse. That's how much things have changed...
If we assume (as I saw some ppl point out) the drama is inspired by Wu Zetian rule, then it takes place arnd year 700 (I'm not that smart, I checked ;)). Of course the rules of... everything were different back then.

Besides, in order to have the official code of ethics, you'd probably need to have the psychiatry recognized as a legit profession. I might be mistaken, but didn't FL say sth about being the first ever doctor of the heart/mind in the early episodes? People look at her and think of what she's doing as witchcraft... 😋

BTW this is a world where torture is an official method of interrogating people. Lack of a "proper" relationship between a psychiatrist and her patient is not that surprising ;)

Yeah, I saw people mention the toe situation as a red flag. Personally, it escaped my attention while I was watching the drama, but I kept noticing a lot of those other subtle "techniques" Fujisawa used. If you separate them into individual occurrences, some of them were obviously alarming (like Fuji not relaying the msgs from Sei's friends), other more lowkey, like his passive aggressive behaviour here and there.
But generally, I'd say he was rather covert and "skilful" about it until that "explosion" in ep 6.

The actor's is doing a really good job, for sure.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the plot. Fujisawa's been abusive towards Sei for years and, as it is often the case, the abuse escalated. It's neither that weird, uncommon or surprising. Even more so, because it happened when Fujisawa felt he was losing his grip/control over Sei. As some other commentators mentioned before, it's all about control - and I agree. Fujisawa had his ways to assert his power over Sei, from isolating him from his friends, to deciding the arrangement of their shared house, judging his choices, e.g. to go to a work party or finally "dosing" his affection.
When he found out Sei had sex with Hagiwara, he felt threatened/insecure, so he proposed for them to move (isolating Sei from Hagiwara and other city temptations and possibilities for a hook-up, encouraging to quit his job etc. to further his control).

When that didn't work the way he intended, he confronted Sei but Sei wasn't particularly ashamed of what he did. I guess you could even say that he intentionally tried to upset Fujisawa by saying things like "we went at it like rabbits". Moreover, he even wanted to contact Hagiwara and "wanted to see him". A very symbolic element of that scene was Sei listening to the rain sound on his phone sent to him by Hagiwara. All of this was a clear indicator for Fujisawa that he was losing control established over the years and it - I can only assume - made him crazy with insecurity.

A way to establish that control back was to escalate his abuse. Why a sexual assault though? Well, I have some theories:
1) Sei had sex with Hagiwara, and in Fujisawa's eyes he was reclaiming what was "his" by having sex with Sei as well.
2) Because Sei had always wanted sex from him before, so in a desperation to make Sei dependant on him again, he decided to give him what he had wanted.
3) It was a form of punishment. As in "oh, so you wanted to have sex, huh? then you better enjoy it now!" kinda twisted logic.

Whether these are correct or not, I still think that the very fact that Fujisawa's - previously somewhat covert and subtle - abuse simply escalated. And the reason why it escalated so much in a span of one evening is because he felt he was loosing his power.

The amount of tv shows, movies and dramas I've watched in my life where cheating was one of the themes is countless. Yet that fact NEVER made me think cheating is ok. I think most of us is capable to tell fiction from reality...

Besides, it's not like this drama is promoted as some educational piece of fiction with a recommendation to draw life lessons from it. It's supposed to be an entertainment, a comedy show broadcasted on a commercial streaming site... which btw, I'm sure, features plenty of waaay more offensive material on it.

Comedies - since... always - were making fun of different aspects of life, not seldom including sensitive topics. There are comedies about gangsters and breaking the law, comedies about... I don't know, running a funeral house, comedies about losing weight, cross-dressing and so on and so forth. Why cheating, of all subjects, should be some untouchable topic?

Finally... the drama hasn't been out yet and so many people have already decided it's trash. Without knowing anything about the quality of the script, directing, storytelling, editing, acting...
In fact, we don't even know how the cheating will be portrayed and what will be the final message at the end of the drama.

Ok, I feel reassured to some extent when reading someone who interpreted that scene in Kotoha's place in a similar way. I also thought she stopped, but the whole bridge conversation afterwards confused me...

But then again, it was just super weird in general. I agree that there's some redeeming quality in Kotoha knowing she should apologize. Agreed one hundred percent on how Megumi handled that apology... it was quite terrible! Even if we ignore what's wrong and right and what would be the healthy reaction in reality, her dismissive attitude with "I was kinda into it" doesn't really fit the Megumi who was very clear about setting the boundaries straight in the first episode. Feels out of character to some extent. It's like she regressed...
Unless we're supposed to believe it's all due to being a fool in love 🙃

I actually still have mixed feelings about this episode... But at least it was definitely filmed very beautifully.

A hickey was not a rape evidence, it was an evidence of Sei getting intimate with someone.
The wrist marks *and* what Sei said beforehand (the remark about blind fury) + the fact that it all happened at a very specific moment (right after Hagiwara and Sei were caught) all put together suggested something more sinister happened.

I do kinda agree that it was simplified, though. But not to the unbearable extent. In my opinion at least.

Or was it just yet another way for Fujisawa to control another small aspect of Sei's life (in this case, how he dresses)?

Being with an abusive person can completely break someone. Narcissists can literally corrode the very core of someone's being and it's extremely difficult to "shake off" this type of influence.

Sei has been conditioned to rely on Fujisawa after his parents died. He has been isolated from any friends. He's been subtly undermined and criticised by Fujisawa on daily basis (how about that moment when Fujisawa suggests Sei's work is of no importance? or how about he dismisses Sei's conversations with his email pal as silly?) and restricted as to what he should and shouldn't do, to the point that he doesn't watch TV, sprays himself before going back home not to displease Fujisawa with how he smells or washes hands like crazy after masturbating...

It's been suggested and shown a bit here and there that Sei's natural personality is more defiant, very direct, a bit cheeky and mischievous. We saw glimpses of that in his emails with Hagiwara or their conversation at the beginning of episode 4, I think (just right after they found out each other's identities). It's also clearly shown that he was someone liked by his university friends, who'd want to keep in touch with him. It's Fujisawa who kept dimming his light all the time, weaving his web of control and abuse around Sei.

Sei pushing Hagiwara away has probably (in my opinion) a lot to do with him feeling indebted to Fujisawa, who "took care" of him after his parents' death. And ofc plenty to do with the fact how much he's been mentally (and now, also physically) victimized and conditioned by Fujisawa. It's difficult to break the cycle of abuse, and I honestly feel super sorry for him and sympathize with his position.

I actually like Sei's character the most 😋

I need someone who's smarter than me or maybe knows Japanese to explain to me what happened between Kotoha and Megumi at Kotoha's place. I was certain she did not go through with her assault after that moment when both of them stared at the plushie (and the plushie seemed to stare back, as if judging Kotoha and possibly triggerning some traumatic memory from the past as well).

However, I got confused by their conversation afterwards when they were walking together at the bridge. Kotoha apologized to Megumi and it kinda sounded like she went through it? Was it a translation mistake or it actually happened?

I hope it's a misunderstanding, because... I honestly don't like this development.

I was not one among people appauled by the first episode. I thought the whole thing at Megumi's place was handled pretty well. Megumi defended herself, she drew the boundary, called what Kotoha was doing for what it was (a crime). I also understood the importance of that event storywise, as it was establishing Kotoha's character and gave us a glimpse of what might've happened to her (e.g. "you think the police will treat it seriously if it's two women" sentence she says - I'm quoting from memory so it's definitely not accurate).

However they completely lost me at episode 6 and that bridge scene. What was that "yay, hurray, let's be together forever" atmosphere? I know that Megumi has this saviour personality to the extent it's not healthy, but wasn't it a bit too much? Especially if the rape actually happened...

Which is why I think it didn't and Kotoha was apologizing for forcing herself on Megumi *before* she stopped. But I wish someone who watched the episode shared their impressions with me.

Can someone who watched ep 6 tell me wth just happened?

It's really good, ignore the ratings. They're a misunderstanding ;)

While the chances for season 2 went up with the recent post from Mou Mou official account, the second season is *not* officially confirmed yet.
What is officially confirmed though is a second fan meeting. Anyone from Thailand (or with money to go to Thailand 😋) and with a will to go, get ready, I guess ;)

I usually don't. Plenty of my favourite stuff has rather low ratings on MDL and plenty of stuff I consider subpar soars above 8,5 😋

It's just that... the drama is still ongoing, I wish it didn't have a rating that immediately scares the possible audiences away.
Another thing is the genre - costume cdramas seem to usually be around 8.5 so 7.9 for such a smart script is just rubbing me the wrong way. I know it's not the most productive emotion to have ;)

She is something of a psychiatrist.
I guess the confusion in the article might come from the fact that in Chinese culture the concepts of heart and mind were kinda interchangeable. But that's just my guess.