trembling brilliantly between realism and romance
Wonderful and recommended although frequently difficult to watch. Something new. Possibly a milestone in the new romance formats.
32eps at 45mins ea. = 24 hrs watch-time. Set in fabulous Chongqing and Hong Kong, written and directed by the Taiwanese director Chu Yu Ning.
3 warnings:
1/ Fastforwarders, you will miss the point entirely if you cannot endure with Sang Yan and Yi Fan thru difficult times. The story shuttles back and forth via flashbacks from before the lovers' six years of separation, then through it - even though this is clearly marked by an endless timeline superimposed on cable cars crossing that crazy city, you cant possibly keep up.
2/ As a binge it is dangerously heroic -- many stayed up all night to see it all this month, lots of sick days ensuing.
3/ It does NOT EVEN REMOTELY resemble Hidden Love, altho based on the same novel and sharing some characters with HL.
If HL is like Switzerland, all clarity and public spaces and teen angst, then FF is like Rome, darkness punctuated by light and vision, a story of lovers well-past their college days. Yi Fan and Sang Yan emerge as timeless characters that you will never forget.
At the edge of realism and romance drama. A thoughtful and intelligent piece following the reconciliation of highschool sweethearts separated for six years due to hidden trauma. From their first interaction in the apartment they 'accidentally' share, it is clear that the FL is a survivor of SA -- every time the ML awkwardly and often bitterly tries to provoke an emotional reaction from her, triggered, she hastily shutters herself and quietly flees while saying something empty of meaning. This is still a classic romance story in that the beautiful and woebegone Yi Fan (played by Zhang Ruo Nan) still instinctively wants to trust her prince Sang Yan (played by Bai Jing Ting) -- but with certain reservations. He wants to protect her, she wants to be independent and strong.
In the first few episodes, both actors were so startlingly powerful without being able to make any connection with each other that at first I thought they might have been miscast or misdirected. Although BJT's repertoire of mannerisms hasnt changed, his voicing, his timing and his physical work expand his range enormously. He is broken and awkward, proud and needy. ZRN acts almost entirely with her eyes, her emotions so close to the surface that it was excruciating to watch her tight self-control. The character Yi Fan uses almost all her emotional energy for what is most important to her, to live well with a bright public face at her job, so ZRN's portrayal is of a walking absence in intimate situations.
With almost no kdrama voiceovers, interior monologues, or revelatory conversations between best friends, the emotions of the main leads are enacted bit by bit onscreen. There is a classic kdrama second couple for the welcome counterpoint of comic relief, who have a funny romance with some family troubles which they solve so that a heartwarming corporate family resolution occurs. On the other hand, the FL's family criminally abused her, neglected her and abandoned her and in the present are still gaslighting her. You, I, and she will never forgive them, ever. Cdrama's moral clarity is such a relief.
Later in the drama we realize that Sang Yan, while waiting for Yi Fan to speak, has grown up enough to try to understand for himself what she has experienced. The series' ambiguous exposition of romantic love doesnt hide its obsessive side -- he had constantly stalked her by traveling to the cities where she had moved, to secretly look at her from afar. In the present tense when she disappears for six months he uses that knowledge as a guide to find out about what had happened back then in Yi Fan's world.
Sang Zhi, the heroine of HL, most importantly appears as her younger self at a new year's dinner. In conversation with Yi Fan she reveals the hinge of Sang Yan's story -- in true love the hero or heroine never gives up, they cross rivers and climb mountains, even if this geography occurs only in the heart. Sang Zhi says that only then did she realize that Sang Yan was a "character" she could relate to (!!). I felt the same way at the end...that I had slowly, struggling a bit, come to understand both of them, but the last one to finally make sense to me was Sang Yan.
Is this a cdrama in kdrama clothes? Is it a combination of the two? Is it about romantic love as obsession or as the healer of all trauma? What do you think?
Watch and see.
ps. i suffered a little whiplash from the contrast of camera styles between the opening kdrama arty shots through glass or around corners and the style of the later street scenes, especially the chases in Nanmu and the cafe scenes in Hong Kong,, where random strangers could even standstill within a static frame but bear no connection with the plot. Kdrama is so tightly patterned that it manages all yr expectations for you. The more realistic cinematography gained traction in the end and I came to see it as something more transparent, where various levels of understanding can be backgrounded if necessary.
I adored the distant night shots of both cities where the lights of cars or trains look like little gems on the necklace of bridges.
32eps at 45mins ea. = 24 hrs watch-time. Set in fabulous Chongqing and Hong Kong, written and directed by the Taiwanese director Chu Yu Ning.
3 warnings:
1/ Fastforwarders, you will miss the point entirely if you cannot endure with Sang Yan and Yi Fan thru difficult times. The story shuttles back and forth via flashbacks from before the lovers' six years of separation, then through it - even though this is clearly marked by an endless timeline superimposed on cable cars crossing that crazy city, you cant possibly keep up.
2/ As a binge it is dangerously heroic -- many stayed up all night to see it all this month, lots of sick days ensuing.
3/ It does NOT EVEN REMOTELY resemble Hidden Love, altho based on the same novel and sharing some characters with HL.
If HL is like Switzerland, all clarity and public spaces and teen angst, then FF is like Rome, darkness punctuated by light and vision, a story of lovers well-past their college days. Yi Fan and Sang Yan emerge as timeless characters that you will never forget.
At the edge of realism and romance drama. A thoughtful and intelligent piece following the reconciliation of highschool sweethearts separated for six years due to hidden trauma. From their first interaction in the apartment they 'accidentally' share, it is clear that the FL is a survivor of SA -- every time the ML awkwardly and often bitterly tries to provoke an emotional reaction from her, triggered, she hastily shutters herself and quietly flees while saying something empty of meaning. This is still a classic romance story in that the beautiful and woebegone Yi Fan (played by Zhang Ruo Nan) still instinctively wants to trust her prince Sang Yan (played by Bai Jing Ting) -- but with certain reservations. He wants to protect her, she wants to be independent and strong.
In the first few episodes, both actors were so startlingly powerful without being able to make any connection with each other that at first I thought they might have been miscast or misdirected. Although BJT's repertoire of mannerisms hasnt changed, his voicing, his timing and his physical work expand his range enormously. He is broken and awkward, proud and needy. ZRN acts almost entirely with her eyes, her emotions so close to the surface that it was excruciating to watch her tight self-control. The character Yi Fan uses almost all her emotional energy for what is most important to her, to live well with a bright public face at her job, so ZRN's portrayal is of a walking absence in intimate situations.
With almost no kdrama voiceovers, interior monologues, or revelatory conversations between best friends, the emotions of the main leads are enacted bit by bit onscreen. There is a classic kdrama second couple for the welcome counterpoint of comic relief, who have a funny romance with some family troubles which they solve so that a heartwarming corporate family resolution occurs. On the other hand, the FL's family criminally abused her, neglected her and abandoned her and in the present are still gaslighting her. You, I, and she will never forgive them, ever. Cdrama's moral clarity is such a relief.
Later in the drama we realize that Sang Yan, while waiting for Yi Fan to speak, has grown up enough to try to understand for himself what she has experienced. The series' ambiguous exposition of romantic love doesnt hide its obsessive side -- he had constantly stalked her by traveling to the cities where she had moved, to secretly look at her from afar. In the present tense when she disappears for six months he uses that knowledge as a guide to find out about what had happened back then in Yi Fan's world.
Sang Zhi, the heroine of HL, most importantly appears as her younger self at a new year's dinner. In conversation with Yi Fan she reveals the hinge of Sang Yan's story -- in true love the hero or heroine never gives up, they cross rivers and climb mountains, even if this geography occurs only in the heart. Sang Zhi says that only then did she realize that Sang Yan was a "character" she could relate to (!!). I felt the same way at the end...that I had slowly, struggling a bit, come to understand both of them, but the last one to finally make sense to me was Sang Yan.
Is this a cdrama in kdrama clothes? Is it a combination of the two? Is it about romantic love as obsession or as the healer of all trauma? What do you think?
Watch and see.
ps. i suffered a little whiplash from the contrast of camera styles between the opening kdrama arty shots through glass or around corners and the style of the later street scenes, especially the chases in Nanmu and the cafe scenes in Hong Kong,, where random strangers could even standstill within a static frame but bear no connection with the plot. Kdrama is so tightly patterned that it manages all yr expectations for you. The more realistic cinematography gained traction in the end and I came to see it as something more transparent, where various levels of understanding can be backgrounded if necessary.
I adored the distant night shots of both cities where the lights of cars or trains look like little gems on the necklace of bridges.
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