This review may contain spoilers
Objectively, this was very good. The writing, pacing, and overall production were all impressive. All the actors did an amazing job. But it’s a dark and somewhat depressing story about sexual harassment and assault, and while the romance is at the forefront, that overarching plot takes a front seat. So you have to know what you’re in for and be in the right headspace for it or it can catch you off guard.
In terms of consent issues, Su Yi is raped by Fang Runzhi and Pei Jia was also sexually harassed by him. Fang Runzhi is the leader of the management agency that both of them are under and is the villain of the show, so this is not something that is romanticized or normalized. There’s also an unfortunate scene where in the aftermath of the rape, Su Yi breaks things off with Pei Jia and Pei Jia non-consensually kisses him to try to prove that Su Yi is lying about not feeling anything for Pei Jia. It ends when Su Yi breaks a glass after pushing him off doesn’t work. This was so tone deaf, especially in the aftermath of Su Yi being raped (especially since Pei Jia suspected) and in the context of a series actively criticizing sexual assault. And it was never acknowledged, criticized, or apologized for.
I appreciated the criticism of gay censorship included in this series. From what I understand, this is a Chinese production distributed through Singapore to avoid Chinese censorship, so I guess the message hits close to home for the production team. The characters are definitively in a romantic relationship, as opposed to a bromance. They actually kiss - not dead fish lip presses, but closed mouth with minimal lip movement and camera angles / cuts that somewhat limit the view. But there was plenty of physical intimacy conveyed just through the actors’ body language and casual touches. I don’t think the lack of a deep or steamy kiss took away from the series, in this case.
I felt that the romance took a bit of a backseat in the second half of the series as a result of the whole sexual assault plot line. It was well done, and I think they showed just enough of the romance to prevent it from taking away from the story they were trying to tell. The ending speech from Pei Jia brought the romance back to the forefront, and that helped. But it definitely felt more like a drama than a BL for a while.
I wanted more closure in the end though. The show ends right after Pei Jia exposes Fang Runzhi in a press conference. First and foremost, I was really missing a proper ending interaction between Pei Jia and Su Yi. They hadn’t seen each other in 10 days in the lead up to the press conference to avoid Fang Runzhi’s attention, and were arguing for a few days because Su Yi was hesitant about revealing his story publicly. They needed a kiss, a hug, a conversation…something other than Pei Jia grabbing Su Yi’s arm as he left the room and the show immediately ending. Also, Su Yi had a tumor that made him blind, and I wanted at least an indication of whether he would have surgery or what he was planning to do. Because left untreated, he was going to die. It would have been nice to see Fang Runzhi’s fate too, but I’m less bothered by that because we saw his reaction to being exposed and the implication is that he will see consequences.
There were a couple of small plot things that bothered me. One was that Pei Jia was sexually harassed by Fang Runzhi initially, but Fang Runzhi seems to have come to the conclusion that he “can’t have” him. It was never explained how Pei Jia got Fang Runzhi to leave him alone while still working under him. Second is that the story starts because Pei Jia joins a low budget production that Fang Runzhi invested in, but it was never explained why Fang Runzhi invested or put Pei Jia in it, especially given that the film is referred to as an “embarrassment” to the company. There’s also the absolute ridiculousness of contractually stipulating that actors share the same bed for the sake of “chemistry”.
I also couldn’t really click with the second couple. I just didn’t get Su Bai at all. They were together for 9 YEARS, and he threw it all away for what? Because his boyfriend gave into censorship demands? What else was he supposed to do? If he didn’t, the whole film would have been shut down. He couldn’t properly verbalize why he was leaving, and he was reluctant to work things out even when the director was fighting for him and telling him he was willing to change, if he could just tell him what he did wrong. He just walked away for no real reason.
In terms of consent issues, Su Yi is raped by Fang Runzhi and Pei Jia was also sexually harassed by him. Fang Runzhi is the leader of the management agency that both of them are under and is the villain of the show, so this is not something that is romanticized or normalized. There’s also an unfortunate scene where in the aftermath of the rape, Su Yi breaks things off with Pei Jia and Pei Jia non-consensually kisses him to try to prove that Su Yi is lying about not feeling anything for Pei Jia. It ends when Su Yi breaks a glass after pushing him off doesn’t work. This was so tone deaf, especially in the aftermath of Su Yi being raped (especially since Pei Jia suspected) and in the context of a series actively criticizing sexual assault. And it was never acknowledged, criticized, or apologized for.
I appreciated the criticism of gay censorship included in this series. From what I understand, this is a Chinese production distributed through Singapore to avoid Chinese censorship, so I guess the message hits close to home for the production team. The characters are definitively in a romantic relationship, as opposed to a bromance. They actually kiss - not dead fish lip presses, but closed mouth with minimal lip movement and camera angles / cuts that somewhat limit the view. But there was plenty of physical intimacy conveyed just through the actors’ body language and casual touches. I don’t think the lack of a deep or steamy kiss took away from the series, in this case.
I felt that the romance took a bit of a backseat in the second half of the series as a result of the whole sexual assault plot line. It was well done, and I think they showed just enough of the romance to prevent it from taking away from the story they were trying to tell. The ending speech from Pei Jia brought the romance back to the forefront, and that helped. But it definitely felt more like a drama than a BL for a while.
I wanted more closure in the end though. The show ends right after Pei Jia exposes Fang Runzhi in a press conference. First and foremost, I was really missing a proper ending interaction between Pei Jia and Su Yi. They hadn’t seen each other in 10 days in the lead up to the press conference to avoid Fang Runzhi’s attention, and were arguing for a few days because Su Yi was hesitant about revealing his story publicly. They needed a kiss, a hug, a conversation…something other than Pei Jia grabbing Su Yi’s arm as he left the room and the show immediately ending. Also, Su Yi had a tumor that made him blind, and I wanted at least an indication of whether he would have surgery or what he was planning to do. Because left untreated, he was going to die. It would have been nice to see Fang Runzhi’s fate too, but I’m less bothered by that because we saw his reaction to being exposed and the implication is that he will see consequences.
There were a couple of small plot things that bothered me. One was that Pei Jia was sexually harassed by Fang Runzhi initially, but Fang Runzhi seems to have come to the conclusion that he “can’t have” him. It was never explained how Pei Jia got Fang Runzhi to leave him alone while still working under him. Second is that the story starts because Pei Jia joins a low budget production that Fang Runzhi invested in, but it was never explained why Fang Runzhi invested or put Pei Jia in it, especially given that the film is referred to as an “embarrassment” to the company. There’s also the absolute ridiculousness of contractually stipulating that actors share the same bed for the sake of “chemistry”.
I also couldn’t really click with the second couple. I just didn’t get Su Bai at all. They were together for 9 YEARS, and he threw it all away for what? Because his boyfriend gave into censorship demands? What else was he supposed to do? If he didn’t, the whole film would have been shut down. He couldn’t properly verbalize why he was leaving, and he was reluctant to work things out even when the director was fighting for him and telling him he was willing to change, if he could just tell him what he did wrong. He just walked away for no real reason.
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