This review may contain spoilers
This is what it means to match somebody's freak
The headline was just to keep me lighthearted as I wrote this review right after watching this drama. There is absolutely NOTHING lighthearted with HWY, freak is a bare understatement, and this review will contain trigger warnings as shown in the drama: mental illness, abuse, violence, and sexual assault
Let me start by saying that the psychological thriller genre is too complicated and complex to be defined by the typical or expected dramatization we usually consume. So, when approaching this drama, one has to be prepared to watch with an open mind, because everything that happens in the story can be beyond reasoning, like how existence is.
The synopsis shared on this page sums up the plot of HWY well, but nothing can prepare you for how it will unfold. It is well-established right from the start that Yu Tian Dong is batshit insane, and he is consumed by his love/obsession for Nan Xing. YTD will always surprise you at how low he can go for NX, he will shock you with how unreasonably obsessive he is, yet you will also be given the chance to learn where he is coming from. From a fictive perspective, his character was well-written and well-reasoned out, which is why I pitied him alongside NX; but in real life, I would be so scared shitless if I got to meet a man like him. He is a walking disaster, and YTD himself knows that. But what I really loved about the story framing was how it showed that YTD is not just driven by his yearning for NX but also by the severe trauma and abuse he had to face growing up. And we know damn well that traumas, especially when deep-seated, greatly influence someone's drive, morality, and reasoning in life. I don't fancy YTD for who he is, but his story was given justice by the drama's writing. But I also believe that such a character won't be convincing if the actor doesn't portray his story well, and I am already on my knees saluting Zhang Chi for a job freaking well done as YTD. ZC is truly no joke on this drama—you would never see any glimpse of ZC throughout the eps, only YTD. He didn't embody or act out as YTD; ZC brought him to life. Him acting like a madman was too realistic, too convincing, so I wish he had gotten a proper mental training and debriefing for this role. His range is probably the most tested here in HWY, and I can bravely attest that he has surpassed his Lu Zhi (Mutual Desires) performance with Yu Tian Dong. God, Zhang Chi is an experience—only by watching him can one deeply understand why many are hooked with him this year.
Surprisingly, I liked Nan Xing's development in this story. In stories like this, and in the typical plot trends in the short drama scene, it is so easy to manipulate the FL's character just to highlight the ML even more. Hell, her character is already problematic to begin with—she defied ethical boundaries of her field of work just because she was drawn into YTD's complex character. But I don't think it's enough to say she manipulated YTD, the tension between them is already beyond their client-patient relationship because YTD knew how to push her buttons (which is not an isolated case for all the doctors who wanted to treat him). Truly, it can be seen that NX was fixated with the belief that it is only she who can cure YTD, and as toxic and questionable as that sounds, that literally is the seedling of her growing feelings for YTD. We can criticize NX for being unethical, but I don't think we can really judge how she "loves". I liked NX's character because she was written and shown as someone who is still bound by her past traumas growing up, yet she is fully aware that she has to keep negotiating life if she wants to continue moving forward. Her goal of living a normal life, while almost hopeless, was her long realization after being with YTD the first time, and we can't really blame her for that. She knew as a psychologist that life is full of second chances, and it isn't a crime to be optimistic about something that you wish to happen for yourself. But she also knew that the very moment her relapses always involved YTD that her life would never be normal. But yet again, what can be seen as "normal" in this drama, right? Nothing about NX and YTD's lives was ever normal. And so I'm fascinated by how NX was made a psychologist with her own unresolved traumas because it depicts how multi-faceted humans can be, even beyond reasoning. I am so drawn into Lin Zi Lin's performance as NX; she perfectly delivered what a mad, insane person trying their best to be sane and normal would usually look like. We can clearly see exactly when NX tries to act perfectly normal, when she is crumbling down, and when she has gone mad. She could've been easily overshadowed by ZC's psychotic performance as YTD, but she knew the balance of calmness and madness that NX has, and she performed damn well. I would love to see her in more challenging dramas like this.
I'd love to talk more about the plot and how this deserves a full-length series on its own. But since this is a character-driven narrative, I have already laid down most of my thoughts just by reviewing the leads alone. I don't know how common plots like this are in short dramas, but it is clear that it defies the repetitive plot elements we are so used to. Every episode was necessary to the development of the story, and seeing how well-delivered it was only shows that the team behind this really took their time respecting the story. With how saturated the short dramas industry is, maybe dramas like HWY can help usher in more challenging and morally gray stories for us to enjoy.
Favorite part: The press conference where YTD acted like he was having an episode, and the cousin expecting NX to expose YTD's mental illness.
[Edit: If my memory serves me right, there was no physical violence between YTD and NX. All toxicity comes from their own heads, and I don't know which is better...]
Let me start by saying that the psychological thriller genre is too complicated and complex to be defined by the typical or expected dramatization we usually consume. So, when approaching this drama, one has to be prepared to watch with an open mind, because everything that happens in the story can be beyond reasoning, like how existence is.
The synopsis shared on this page sums up the plot of HWY well, but nothing can prepare you for how it will unfold. It is well-established right from the start that Yu Tian Dong is batshit insane, and he is consumed by his love/obsession for Nan Xing. YTD will always surprise you at how low he can go for NX, he will shock you with how unreasonably obsessive he is, yet you will also be given the chance to learn where he is coming from. From a fictive perspective, his character was well-written and well-reasoned out, which is why I pitied him alongside NX; but in real life, I would be so scared shitless if I got to meet a man like him. He is a walking disaster, and YTD himself knows that. But what I really loved about the story framing was how it showed that YTD is not just driven by his yearning for NX but also by the severe trauma and abuse he had to face growing up. And we know damn well that traumas, especially when deep-seated, greatly influence someone's drive, morality, and reasoning in life. I don't fancy YTD for who he is, but his story was given justice by the drama's writing. But I also believe that such a character won't be convincing if the actor doesn't portray his story well, and I am already on my knees saluting Zhang Chi for a job freaking well done as YTD. ZC is truly no joke on this drama—you would never see any glimpse of ZC throughout the eps, only YTD. He didn't embody or act out as YTD; ZC brought him to life. Him acting like a madman was too realistic, too convincing, so I wish he had gotten a proper mental training and debriefing for this role. His range is probably the most tested here in HWY, and I can bravely attest that he has surpassed his Lu Zhi (Mutual Desires) performance with Yu Tian Dong. God, Zhang Chi is an experience—only by watching him can one deeply understand why many are hooked with him this year.
Surprisingly, I liked Nan Xing's development in this story. In stories like this, and in the typical plot trends in the short drama scene, it is so easy to manipulate the FL's character just to highlight the ML even more. Hell, her character is already problematic to begin with—she defied ethical boundaries of her field of work just because she was drawn into YTD's complex character. But I don't think it's enough to say she manipulated YTD, the tension between them is already beyond their client-patient relationship because YTD knew how to push her buttons (which is not an isolated case for all the doctors who wanted to treat him). Truly, it can be seen that NX was fixated with the belief that it is only she who can cure YTD, and as toxic and questionable as that sounds, that literally is the seedling of her growing feelings for YTD. We can criticize NX for being unethical, but I don't think we can really judge how she "loves". I liked NX's character because she was written and shown as someone who is still bound by her past traumas growing up, yet she is fully aware that she has to keep negotiating life if she wants to continue moving forward. Her goal of living a normal life, while almost hopeless, was her long realization after being with YTD the first time, and we can't really blame her for that. She knew as a psychologist that life is full of second chances, and it isn't a crime to be optimistic about something that you wish to happen for yourself. But she also knew that the very moment her relapses always involved YTD that her life would never be normal. But yet again, what can be seen as "normal" in this drama, right? Nothing about NX and YTD's lives was ever normal. And so I'm fascinated by how NX was made a psychologist with her own unresolved traumas because it depicts how multi-faceted humans can be, even beyond reasoning. I am so drawn into Lin Zi Lin's performance as NX; she perfectly delivered what a mad, insane person trying their best to be sane and normal would usually look like. We can clearly see exactly when NX tries to act perfectly normal, when she is crumbling down, and when she has gone mad. She could've been easily overshadowed by ZC's psychotic performance as YTD, but she knew the balance of calmness and madness that NX has, and she performed damn well. I would love to see her in more challenging dramas like this.
I'd love to talk more about the plot and how this deserves a full-length series on its own. But since this is a character-driven narrative, I have already laid down most of my thoughts just by reviewing the leads alone. I don't know how common plots like this are in short dramas, but it is clear that it defies the repetitive plot elements we are so used to. Every episode was necessary to the development of the story, and seeing how well-delivered it was only shows that the team behind this really took their time respecting the story. With how saturated the short dramas industry is, maybe dramas like HWY can help usher in more challenging and morally gray stories for us to enjoy.
Favorite part: The press conference where YTD acted like he was having an episode, and the cousin expecting NX to expose YTD's mental illness.
[Edit: If my memory serves me right, there was no physical violence between YTD and NX. All toxicity comes from their own heads, and I don't know which is better...]
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