cchristina

I wish cdramas gave a little more thought to the FL characters.

The woman was in jail for 4 years. She must have seen all kinds of things, or at least heard about them. She decided to work at a specific kind of bar, but she was acting pure and innocent "please mister I do it for my seven sick siblings and my grandma's medicine"?

This trope of "pure girl works respectfuly at mob bar private rooms and is shocked and cries when drunk men try to grope her" is so very tiring!

They could have portrayed her as a moral but realistic woman who knows very well the ways of the night and tries to protect herself and her dignity in a realistic way.

It would be much more interesting and I would be much more invested.

If they are well-written, with good actors and smart plot, I watch.

They are no different from any other "national history" drama. It may be hard for the viewers who don't know history or for those who are fanatic (from any side, it doesn't matter), but if you watch them as a work of art and not as a tool of propaganda, sometimes they are enjoyable.

Of course, we all know who is going to win (the communsts) and which girl will be the hero's lover (the girl without lipstick, the one with simple hairstyle) and who is going to die in the end and how many will get tortured or will betray and also there is always the same pattern and the same tropes and the same clichés.

However, if you watch a drama from any other country about a war or about their intelligence services etc, you will notice the same patterns. Just because the patterns are familiar or because people agree with the views expressed, it doens't mean they are not there. The recipe to make a spy drama is the exact same in all countries.

Also, it is fun and useful to see how other countries perceive themselves.

All the crdamas of that era have the same type of premise, there is no japanese-war era drama where the story is not about the battle between the two parties in China. Since the ccp won, of course the represantation is favourable. It's the same as watching a British film about WWII and saying "oh the pro-british propaganda is strong".
The japanese war in these dramas is for having a framework for the plot and for being able to film action scenes that are not in costume. That's why the plots in these dramas are all pretty much similar and you can even predict all of the plot twists sooner or later.
So, when watching such a drama, it's better to just focus on the quality of writing, filming, acting and production because the actual plot is a copy of 10000 other plots of the same type of drama. (And that's why I dropped one this around ep. 17 )

The FL is stupid. She is a forensic doctor and she can't stand forensic work. I suppose the writers tried to make her cute and funny, but everytime she shuts her eyes or she screams, I cringe. She looks at the ML with wide eyes like a litle girl and asks stupid questiosn about life and work and everything. So disappointing.

Not exactly. It is that the action is slow and repetitive and too easy. Too many coincidences and easy escapes. It was obvious that there would be no chemistry since ep.1, because the actors dont blend well together, but at least we could have some action.
Personally, I dislike when producers overemphasize romance in an action drama, but this drama is supposed to be about a couple, not about the action. Here, we have neither a couple nor believable action.

A good person wouldn't threat to reveal a woman's private information if she didn't go out with him. I am annoyed that the writers try to make him likeable after the blackmail.

Too many coincidences. Too too many. There is no suspense at all, all the spy operations become comedic. At least the bad guys are not totally stupid, they suspect and make plans. It's just that the coincidences are too many and the planning is too easy and they always look like fools. No suspense.

The FL looks more like a meak housewife than a hardened spy, even in her action scenes. All her scenes look like the scenes of a female shopkeeper in a light urban romance.
I've see the ML in other action drams and he was better than here. So I assume it's not the actor's and the actress' fault, it's the production.

The dramas of this era have a very precise script recipe and they are all the same (similar tropes, similar characters, similar outcomes, similar logic, similar action) and it's difficult to make them original, but at least this one tries.

Even if it was in the scenario, the way they produced it, filmed it and let it be is harmful. They kept showing it for several minutes, which means they intended it to be a "famous" scene online and make a buzz. Even if this is their plan, they should have filmed it in another way. Thisis waht annoyed me the most and now I can't even bear to watch 1 minute of the couple. I really hope the actors gave an interview or made a comment and said this was not a "hot" scene.

Even in that case, he's now deleted from my books. As for her, she would tolerate anything just to get revenge.

Not 100% sure, but I think it is. It ruined the drama for me. The one time they show a realistic relationship with people who don't look like 14 -year-olds and who actually date and are actually together after the wedding, they go and add this scene. I am disappointed. I think she hugged him and not really resisted him, but maybe I think so because I don't want to accept that the writers actually made this scene.
I also hate the fact that in all the asian dramas they use drink as an excuse. Drunk people only do what they have in their heart. If he wasn't ready to r**e her, drink wouldn't affect him.