jpny01

Finally, someone who picks up on the visual symbolism and metaphor. People are missing half the levels of this drama. In fairness, it's easy to be stuck on the literal elements when you have to read subtitles and so a lot of your visual concentration is on that.

In any case, the imagery of the two on the ledge was fraught with meaning - I hope not foreshadowing...

I don't think they were really just friends to begin with - they're both just too clueless to understand what's going on.

The drama is R-rated, so I'm confused why people are surprised there are adult themes. I agree, flawed and damaged people are way more interesting than perfect ones - and I think this is wonderfully written and surprising in it's complexity and nuance, although I thought the boss was too cartoonishly evil to make the point they were trying to make.

I agree with you. I think what I disagree with in this thread is oversimplification, generalization, and blanket statements, for example "all sex while drunk is non-consensual" which is not a useful thing to say, as it's obviously not true in most cases. I think you can look at an individual situation and debate whether or not it was non-consensual, but you can't claim that every single occurrence of something is.

I disagree with all of that.

That is not technically right. If everyone that's drunk that has sex is by definition raped, then most of humanity has been raped repeatedly. Consent is not possible if you're incapacitated, and drunk people don't suddenly have sex with their siblings.

Here we go again.

I agree with you - the 1 & 0 thing is supposed to be them being clueless and is meant to be funny. I'm the opposite though - I'm way more interested in the brothers storyline. I think we already know exactly what will happen with Mu Ren and Li Cheng, so it just seems formulaic to me, but this series has surprised me, so maybe it will go somewhere I'm not expecting and draw me in.

The are not romanticizing any of it at all. Yong Jie's behavior is portrayed as deeply troubled, and Mu Ren squirming in the tub was a sex dream Li Cheng had, not what actually happened. I thought it was meant to be disturbing, but other people found it hot.

I'm in a minority about Mu Ren, but I find him entirely unattractive, although he has nice eyes and skin. It was clear that Li Cheng was had a sexualized reaction to seeing him naked, but I was thinking I should run and get him a cheesecake. That was scary-skinny, like I'm not sure you can be healthy and that thin.

I am in agreement about Xing Si - he's so beautiful and played by such a great actor. I will go into the minority again, but on a purely physical level, Yong Jie does it for me the most, although I wouldn't date him in a million years. The actor, however...

I'm not entirely sure I understood you correctly, but if you're asking why Mu Ren was saying he was hot in the scenes that were reality, it's because the boss spiked his drink with a rape drug. He meant literally hot, like feverish. Later, in Li Cheng's dream, it was considerably more figurative. :)

I have to disagree with you about things being done for ratings without deep thought being behind each scene - I think every scene is very carefully crafted, both visually and in dialog, with a very specific effect and narrative reason behind it. Especially for this episode, it might be hard to rewatch because of how loaded and heavy most of them were, but you might see things on a second viewing that went by quickly upon first watching.

Yong Jie had that expression because he thought Xing Si had left him - he looked pointedly at the chair he'd been sitting in.

Xing Si cried like that because he blames himself for what happened and for how Yong Jie is. And he's probably also just overwhelmed with the whole thing, especially as he's not out to his parents, adding another layer of emotional stress to the situation.

That's the opposite of why he was crying. He explained it earlier. It's because he can't forgive himself for what happened, and It's because he thinks he made Yong Jie this way.

I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to say Xing Si is not in the slight bit interested in a romantic relationship - he clearly has absolutely no intention of pursuing a relationship, which is all that matters from a moral perspective, but his feelings are more complex, and that's where the drama lies.

They can have a happy ending, but it would have to require a large time jump and lots of therapy - there's really no way to accomplish it in a way that would make any sense otherwise. I suspect it will not have a happy ending.

That's the reality of the world though. It may be that they've transferred him planning to get rid of him later to avoid scandal. He belongs in prison, though, and it looks like that won't happen.

I'm very sure it wasn't a memory because he wondered why he had dreamed that. If it had happened, it wouldn't surprise him to dream about it.

That was Li Cheng's dream. He was confused why he had a dream like that, so it's not a memory.

I don't think jail is where Yong Jie belongs - that certainly wouldn't do him any good.

That's for sure. This series you really have to pay attention to, because they use a lot of visual information and metaphor, like the phallic bottle in the sand at the beach or the bride symbolism of Yong Jie carrying Xing Si - so I'm a little scared that the "outdoor scene" today was foreshadowing.

I don't know what you mean my putting that in quotation marks.