irmar

Poor Cherry deserves some honesty from her friends and from her lover. It's the only way she could MAYBE move on. Everyone knows but her! And the guy playing the noble idiot is an idiot period. I thought his reason would be some life-threatening disease, loan sharks around him or some tragedy like that. And it was only that he didn't have money? Come on! This makes it super ridiculous. It must have something to do with the Chinese notion of saving face and the patriarchal thought that the man should be the provider and make more than the woman. That's where we the international public cannot really understand. I see some in the comments say they understand him, they must be Chinese then?

Why should HE give a good life to her? Because he's a guy and she's a woman? And he doesn't need to go to university, he can get an honest job like everyone else, with his superior brain.

When he came with the black cap, he already had this dark style, he was lying about coming back and left her on false pretenses ("Go heat the buns and I'm coming"). So no, he already knew that he couldn't keep his promises.

It IS stupid and he is a coward. Because he knows he is inflicting great emotional distress to the person he supposedly loves.

In case you wondered about the military training. I searched and found this.
In China, university students are required to participate in a period of military training, typically at the beginning of their freshman year. This training, mandated by the Ministry of Education and the Central Military Commission, aims to instill discipline, patriotism, and an awareness of national defense. The training period is typically 21 days for college students and 14 days for high school students and involves both theoretical study and practical exercises, including marching, physical training, and learning about national security policies and global security situation, as well as participate in military-style exercises.
Nowadays it is also done in thousands of elementary schools designated as “model schools for national defence education”, part of China’s push to increase military awareness and skills among its population – starting at younger and younger ages.
The training also aims to improve students' physical fitness, mental discipline, and work ethic.
There's a renewed focus on military training and national defense education, with efforts to integrate it more effectively into the curriculum and make it a more meaningful experience.
The growing emphasis on military training for civilians reflects a heightened nationalism in today’s China under Xi, who has also made clear his distaste for what he sees as declining masculinity in China, and the worsening risk that he could take the country into war over Taiwan.
“Requiring children to engage in performative military education activities at younger and younger ages normalises China’s increasingly aggressive foreign policy, and could potentially prepare the country psychologically for a contingency in which China engages in armed conflict,” said Bethany Allen, the head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s China programme.
China-based analysts have also told media the ruling Chinese Communist party (CCP) is learning from the Ukraine war and the potential need to have a population that can be quickly mobilised for conflict.
More here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/11/love-the-army-defend-the-motherland-how-china-is-pushing-military-education-on-children

She compares with the mother in Secret Garden (k-drama), who doesn't relent even at the end.

That was good! I loved it.

I am enjoying it very much! There are some similarities with other stories but it feels fresh, and the actors are very good.

It's
1) because of his past behaviour and knowing that in the past he didn't want to do it but he had to, and the evil kind hasn't changed
2) because he acted all offended and didn't clearly say "No, I didn't do it".

I've watched up to ep. 10 and none of this has happened yet.

To be fair, she didn't say she will do her best to get eliminated, she just said "I'll be eliminated anyway because I am lacking".
If she really does want to marry the prince, why did she say to the other young man to wait for her?

I'm sure they are, but she didn't even try a swimming move with her arms, she just let herself go down without a struggle.

Yes, it's a supposedly "cute" style, super annoying. I remember in "Five Children" (renamed "Five Enough"), Shin Hye Sun did it (the golf couple). It was so annoying we all wanted to slap her. Gradually she got rid of that speaking flaw in her next dramas and now she does it only occasionally, thank goodness!

That was a very bland drama. I fully commend the alcohol message, and it was treated realistically, acknowledging that people never really get over their desire for it. For the rest... The ML is bland like low-fat milk.

A family member of mine was bedridden in hospital some time ago. Not even that long as this psycho dad is supposed to be lying there. After two and a half months he had lost so much muscle mass that he couldn't sit up on the bed without fainting, and certainly couldn't get up and walk. And also couldn't control his fingers and write, his hands were shaking. He had to do rehab for one month before going back home. But the psycho dad gets up as if it's nothing and has the strength to dress himself go out and stab someone? I know it's a drama, but it's not a fantasy drama, so please keep to the bare minimum of realism.

I read the opposite somewhere!

They are on Viki too. https://www.viki.com/tv/41108c-the-prisoner-of-beauty#episodes

Well, nobody can say what would have happened if this and if that. And -although of course none of us can be in this father's mind - accepting LGBT people and treating them equally is very different than seeing your son kissing and making out on screen with a man.

I'm not really getting it, but that's okay that we have different views. No problem.

I mean... not good, not bad. I'm really indifferent to how many people she kisses in a show. Even if it mattered, what's the difference between kissing two or three or ten in one drama or kissing only one in each of 10 different dramas? The total number will be the same.