20
152
1
Masochistic writing filled with trauma dumping and bland romance
If I knew what I was getting into, I would have never, ever watched this drama. My rating has reduced massively because of the final 4 episodes. The drama is about the female lead, a journalist, who goes to a fictional country amidst a war. She is unexpectedly saved by the male lead, a volunteer soldier, who specialises in defusing bombs.
The story starts off as quite fluffy and hopeful. Despite the war zone, we follow how the main leads fall in love and save people from disasters. After the first 10 episodes, the drama turns melodramatic with PTSD and mental health as the focal point, and it does a good job in portraying these themes.
However, the middle of the drama completely lost me. The plot became draggy with unnecessary misunderstandings, break up, and more and more PTSD. For about 10 episodes, virtually nothing happened.
Then, the last 10 episodes finally moved the plot forward, with a mix of action scenes and at-this-point boring romance. The ending felt like a new level of masochistic writing, with very disturbing scenes that literally gave me major anxiety, trauma and heart palpitations.
POSITIVE:
- Che Zhe Yuan’s outstanding and phenomenal acting performance.
- Top-notch “bromance”. Censorship or not, Ben and Sasin totally stole the spotlight. Their Grumpy x Sunshine vibes were highly entertaining but at the same time the writers did a phenomenal job building their emotional connection. The fact that it became the number 2 hot couple on weibo says it all.
- Action scenes. I’m not a fan of war movies but I give props to the production for making such realistic war scenes, some of them even looked like a blockbuster spy movie.
- Great OST.
NEGATIVE:
- Masochistic writing. From episode 10 the drama was constantly trauma dumping and tried to lean too much on realism. The ending episodes with the torture scenes gave me major anxiety and trauma.
- Too slow paced. Everything was snail-paced, especially the dialogue. I mostly watched the second half at 1.5x speed and it still looked normal.
- Bland romance. It started off as cute but the second half ruined it with unnecessary break up, misunderstanding and then just blah blah bland romance.
- Draggy. The middle of the drama was so unnecessary, instead of 10 episodes of seeing the characters suffer and recycle the same PTSD, we could have 2-3 episodes and move on.
- Female lead. At first I quite liked her shy and brave nature. But from the second half she became such a dull and lifeless character that I didn’t really care about. It also felt awkward how amidst the war, she was just casually strolling along and taking pictures.
OVERALL:
I was hesitant to start this drama because I’m not a fan of war and modern realistic stories. But I decided to try it out since I love Che Zhe Yuan so much. The first 10 episodes totally roped me in, I loved the balance between fluff and tragedy. That, despite the hardships, there was always a sense of hopefulness, that ‘better days are coming ahead”. But afterwards, the drama became more and more serious with trauma dumping, PTSD, death, suicide etc.
While I do understand the realistic approach of the writing, I absolutely hated this drama and wish I had never watched it. I watch dramas to escape reality, not to be re-traumatized. Yes, bad things happen in real life and I commend the drama for showing that. In fact it gave me a new perspective about war and soldier’s life, BUT it made me sick to my stomach seeing the male character go through so much torture and pain.
The thing is, I don’t mind sad endings if done right. But this ending was on a different level, it just felt dreadful, disturbing to watch and unnecessary traumatising, rather than sad. And for what? To show the realism we all know all too well? Shouldn’t there always be a light at the end of the tunnel? If not, what are we living for?
The story starts off as quite fluffy and hopeful. Despite the war zone, we follow how the main leads fall in love and save people from disasters. After the first 10 episodes, the drama turns melodramatic with PTSD and mental health as the focal point, and it does a good job in portraying these themes.
However, the middle of the drama completely lost me. The plot became draggy with unnecessary misunderstandings, break up, and more and more PTSD. For about 10 episodes, virtually nothing happened.
Then, the last 10 episodes finally moved the plot forward, with a mix of action scenes and at-this-point boring romance. The ending felt like a new level of masochistic writing, with very disturbing scenes that literally gave me major anxiety, trauma and heart palpitations.
POSITIVE:
- Che Zhe Yuan’s outstanding and phenomenal acting performance.
- Top-notch “bromance”. Censorship or not, Ben and Sasin totally stole the spotlight. Their Grumpy x Sunshine vibes were highly entertaining but at the same time the writers did a phenomenal job building their emotional connection. The fact that it became the number 2 hot couple on weibo says it all.
- Action scenes. I’m not a fan of war movies but I give props to the production for making such realistic war scenes, some of them even looked like a blockbuster spy movie.
- Great OST.
NEGATIVE:
- Masochistic writing. From episode 10 the drama was constantly trauma dumping and tried to lean too much on realism. The ending episodes with the torture scenes gave me major anxiety and trauma.
- Too slow paced. Everything was snail-paced, especially the dialogue. I mostly watched the second half at 1.5x speed and it still looked normal.
- Bland romance. It started off as cute but the second half ruined it with unnecessary break up, misunderstanding and then just blah blah bland romance.
- Draggy. The middle of the drama was so unnecessary, instead of 10 episodes of seeing the characters suffer and recycle the same PTSD, we could have 2-3 episodes and move on.
- Female lead. At first I quite liked her shy and brave nature. But from the second half she became such a dull and lifeless character that I didn’t really care about. It also felt awkward how amidst the war, she was just casually strolling along and taking pictures.
OVERALL:
I was hesitant to start this drama because I’m not a fan of war and modern realistic stories. But I decided to try it out since I love Che Zhe Yuan so much. The first 10 episodes totally roped me in, I loved the balance between fluff and tragedy. That, despite the hardships, there was always a sense of hopefulness, that ‘better days are coming ahead”. But afterwards, the drama became more and more serious with trauma dumping, PTSD, death, suicide etc.
While I do understand the realistic approach of the writing, I absolutely hated this drama and wish I had never watched it. I watch dramas to escape reality, not to be re-traumatized. Yes, bad things happen in real life and I commend the drama for showing that. In fact it gave me a new perspective about war and soldier’s life, BUT it made me sick to my stomach seeing the male character go through so much torture and pain.
The thing is, I don’t mind sad endings if done right. But this ending was on a different level, it just felt dreadful, disturbing to watch and unnecessary traumatising, rather than sad. And for what? To show the realism we all know all too well? Shouldn’t there always be a light at the end of the tunnel? If not, what are we living for?
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