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This review may contain spoilers
Toxic in the best way
When I read a review about how China's been pumping out the most toxic shows this year (2025) and they included this one, I knew I had to watch it. I'm a sucker for toxic relationships (in fiction, lol). And boy, this show delivered.
I'm going to start off by saying that if you don't like toxicity, manipulation, etc., this show is NOT for you. I've seen so many reviews of people talking about how this is not a healthy relationship and they don't condone this, etc, etc. Guys, let's be real for a sec -- fiction is allowed to get dirty. Some people like it. It doesn't mean we condone it in real life.
Now that that's out of the way, I'll talk about what I loved about this show. I love pining, I love the whole "I can't not love you," I love the possessiveness. The storyline was everything I wanted it to be. And towards the end there was the perfect amount of pining so that we'd get that incredible climax of a reunion.
As for the acting... that's where the show fell short for me. Not to say that the actors didn't have chemistry - they do. But both actors didn't really have much of an expression. Hao Yi Ran (Shu Lang) never had any real expression on his face except when he was crying about his mom. And Yun Qi (Fan Xiao) really only knew how to squint to show emotion. I don't know if it was a director's choice or just the actors, but I wish they had more emotion on their faces. Instead, the show had to show us their feelings using other tools such as them crushing their cigarettes or throwing something. I could tell there were a few times where the actors were trying to show some micro-expressions, but tbh it really wasn't working, at least for me. I'm not sure if it's because of them being relatively new actors, but I hope they get to expand their emotional repertoire. BUT! The voice actors did AMAZING. The pining in their voices were a great offset to the expressionless face. Props to them.
As for the spicy scenes, while they were nice, the kisses were also not the best I've seen. It was very much peck and then biting neck. But hey, it wasn't a dead fish kiss so I guess that's good?
Anyway, this is definitely the kind of show you want to turn off your moral compass for and just watch the toxicity on full blast. It's crooked in the best way and I loved watching them both go nuts. Sometimes we need something gray in between the sweet shows, and this hit the spot.
P.S. The amount of smoking they did in this show made MY lungs hurt. But hey, definitely not the worst thing about these characters lol.
I'm going to start off by saying that if you don't like toxicity, manipulation, etc., this show is NOT for you. I've seen so many reviews of people talking about how this is not a healthy relationship and they don't condone this, etc, etc. Guys, let's be real for a sec -- fiction is allowed to get dirty. Some people like it. It doesn't mean we condone it in real life.
Now that that's out of the way, I'll talk about what I loved about this show. I love pining, I love the whole "I can't not love you," I love the possessiveness. The storyline was everything I wanted it to be. And towards the end there was the perfect amount of pining so that we'd get that incredible climax of a reunion.
As for the acting... that's where the show fell short for me. Not to say that the actors didn't have chemistry - they do. But both actors didn't really have much of an expression. Hao Yi Ran (Shu Lang) never had any real expression on his face except when he was crying about his mom. And Yun Qi (Fan Xiao) really only knew how to squint to show emotion. I don't know if it was a director's choice or just the actors, but I wish they had more emotion on their faces. Instead, the show had to show us their feelings using other tools such as them crushing their cigarettes or throwing something. I could tell there were a few times where the actors were trying to show some micro-expressions, but tbh it really wasn't working, at least for me. I'm not sure if it's because of them being relatively new actors, but I hope they get to expand their emotional repertoire. BUT! The voice actors did AMAZING. The pining in their voices were a great offset to the expressionless face. Props to them.
As for the spicy scenes, while they were nice, the kisses were also not the best I've seen. It was very much peck and then biting neck. But hey, it wasn't a dead fish kiss so I guess that's good?
Anyway, this is definitely the kind of show you want to turn off your moral compass for and just watch the toxicity on full blast. It's crooked in the best way and I loved watching them both go nuts. Sometimes we need something gray in between the sweet shows, and this hit the spot.
P.S. The amount of smoking they did in this show made MY lungs hurt. But hey, definitely not the worst thing about these characters lol.
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