themarchioness

And I totally get this is your view - and to each our own! - just wanted to share another perspective. I think people who are frustrated with the FL are placing her shoes on themselves versus placing themselves in her shoes. Do we have the right to judge the speed by which she finds her guts, as you put it?

And thank goodness this drama is following its own format, so we have something different to watch! I like an easy, breezy watch as much as the next person but I also like to be able to sink my emotions into a good storyline too. It's good to have variety.

Every drama and its story is different. You say there's no progress. I disagree. Each episode is a step forward for them. It's not just about their relationship. It's about discovering themselves as individuals, too, particularly in the case of XQ.

As for their relationship, although they have a past, they're not the same people that they were in high school so in addition to unraveling what happened to them in the past, they are also having to figure out if they still want to be together in the present.

So I do see step-by-step progress, and soon we are going to be reaching that climax point - which seems about right given we're hitting mid-way point of the drama. Fortunately, if all goes according to the book there will be no break-up or separation so let's not jinx us on that score!

Some of us enjoy watching the song and dance. If the leads got together in 2 episodes, we'd spend the rest of the drama complaining it was boring with nothing happening. It's also not that sweet, fluffy type of drama.

There's not much to be said. It's said at one point that when SY was little, he heard that his mom abandoned the family to hook up with a rich man. That she had another child with that man and that child was taken from her and sent to be raised by the main wife, since she was the mistress. He then mentions that when he was 10 years old, he snuck away to find her. He found her walking away with the rich man, but she turned to look at him, so SY knows she recognized him and didn't say anything him. In that moment, he gave up on his mom and spit on the man's car.

Much later in the book, when the adopted mom is venting at her husband as to why it can't be SY, it's revealed that XQ's father almost didn't marry the mother because of SY's mother. That's when we learn that her hatred of SY ran deeper than just he came from a background she didn't approve of. It's never indicated in the book that the leads are ever made aware of that twist.

I'm a novel reader and I don't think the brother is bad. I don't think he's great either. I think he is human and flawed. People don't like him because of the barrier that he represents between SY and XQ. But he only "supports" his mother in the sense that they have a shared ultimate goal of not wanting those two to be together. Their reasons for why they want that, though, are different. Obviously, the brother has a self-interest in not wanting to see SY and XQ together. Ultimately, though, he is a person who cares for his sister and would never do anything to harm her. There is also no person better situated than him to know what it has been like for XQ to grow up in the conditions that she has, so he is sympathetic towards her. All of which is to say that in the end, he would never do anything that would truly hurt XQ and so it is pointless to hate him for all of this alone.

As a personal aside, I also think most of his "love" for XQ stems from when she joined their family as a child and she served as the first lifeline for him. If he allowed himself to open up, be free, and pursue his personal interests (as XQ is trying to do, and as she has encouraged him to do), he would probably find a whole different life before him - including a love of his own.

All that said, he is also definitely a product of his upbringing. That's how you get scenes like the one in Ep 21 where he just rolls up to the door and says to Yezi (the bar/art gallery girl), "Get in," versus an actual offer or invitation to give her a ride. I just rolled my eyes at that scene.

As for all his scenes that the drama is including between the brother and Yezi, again, I am a novel reader and I actually support their inclusion - here's why. Everyone is focused on the fact that 1) they didn't exist in the book, and 2) by including them, the drama decreases screen time for the main leads. But this drama is everyone's story, not just the mains. The mains are just the prominent one. More importantly, what happens around the mains, influences what happens to them. From that perspective, we do need to know what's going on and so we should not focus only on the now and how the current scenes between the brother and Yezi affect us now. Instead, we should also think about -- what is this building up to?

As has been mentioned, in the book, there is stuff that happens between Yezi and the brother towards the end. None of knows whether the drama will take the story in the same direction, BUT IF IT DOES, the groundwork they are laying now will make so much more sense for what happens in the future -- as compared to the book. There, I said it! LOL. In the book, when all that stuff comes up between Yezi and MYC, it feels out of left field and that's because the book didn't give us these in-between scenes. Rather, any interactions that they might have had happened off screen and, at best, were only vaguely hinted at. A reader could reach that critical point and wonder, how did we get here? But I guarantee you, for us drama watchers, that most likely would not happen because of all these current scenes. And that's why I'm okay with them, whether you want to call them "filler" or just part of the episode, as I prefer to think of them.

If anyone wants to know what happened btw MYC and Yezi in the book, I wrote a long explanation here: https://kisskh.at/713795-wo-de-ren-jian-yan-hou#comment-13843873

I would first start off by saying that Ye Zi has way more "screen" time in the drama than she does in the book, although she has an "important" role in the book (and we'll see if it plays out in the same way in the drama).

In the book, as in the drama, she works at XYX's bar which is where MYC/the brother (and the readers) first meet her. The next time we really see her it's when Zhai Miao (the cousin) is at the police station as Ye Zi is actually sitting next to her while Zhai Miao refuses to name her as her source. As in the drama, she's eventually persuaded to do so by XQ but soon thereafter a phone call is received and the next thing we know, they're both excused with Ye Zi personally escorted out. It's at that point XQ realizes what must have happened and sure enough, once they exit the police station, she spots her brother's car picking up Ye Zi. [This is different from the drama where the brother ended up at the police station because of XQ, who was trying to help SY/Zhai Miao, and Zhai Miao didn't see Ye Zi until they were back in the dorm.]

Towards the end of the book, MYC will be accused of sexual assault in an online post -- Ye Zi claims to be the victim. Apparently she and that group of college friends had run into him at the bar, and so the friends take Ye Zi's side and everyone online believes her story as well. XQ is called to the police station by the Meng family since MYC refuses to talk to anyone or say anything that would clear his name. Of course SY goes with her. While XQ goes to talk to her brother SY realizes his cousin must be around somewhere, given this group of people, and sure enough finds her hiding in a stairwell. She confesses she has photos on her phone that would clear MYC's name, but she doesn't want to help the Meng family given what they (the adopted mom) did to SY in the past. She also doesn't think SY should want to help him.

SY convinces her it's the right thing to do by pointing out that he doesn't forgive them, nor does he want an apology from them as he wouldn't be able to forgive them, but he also doesn't live with resentment nor does he seek revenge -- in other words, he's completely moved on and they don't have any significance in his life. Zhai Miao then goes to the adopted parents and tells them she has what they need to clear their son's name, but she thinks they should kneel before her to make up for what they did to her family in the past. The father was going to kneel, but the mom stopped him and said she would. Just as she was lowering herself and about to reach the knees, Zhai Miao called it off asking how she would look before her "sao-zi" (sister-in-law, aka XQ) if she actually let her parents kneel before her. I think it was enough for her that they were finally wiling to do so (albeit out of desperate need), and so she hands over the evidence and MYC is released. Ye Zi, on the other hand, is arrested and awaiting sentencing at the time of her mention.

As you can see from the above, we don't see a lot of the in between stuff. It can be understood that there is something going on at least on a surface level between Ye Zi and MYC , but it happens off screen in the book. I know a lot of drama watchers don't like their added scenes because they see it as filler and time away from the OTP, but honestly, I like that it provides context and fleshes out their story because from the book perspective, it's so vague you kind of have to put the pieces together for yourself. At least the drama tells you what's going on.

XQ's mom should take lessons from Jiang Yu on how to be an effective matchmaker.

But, wait, oh right, you'd have to first actually care about the people you were trying to matchmake to be an effective matchmaker!

In any event, all I know is that when SY and XQ get married, they're the ones who are going to have to give Jiang Yu a nice, fat red envelope! Haha.

One today (Friday, 7/14), one Saturday, and none on Sunday.

The first part of the drama followed the book more closely, but even then, there were changes made and that's no different from what is happening where we currently are at in the drama. All the changes that have been made though have been for (likely) censorship reasons, to flesh our certain aspects/characters from the book, and to give life to still others. I have read "Waiting For You in the City" many times; it's a book I really enjoy. And I'm really enjoying the drama now, too. I don't mind the changes; in fact, I appreciate them. Understandably, people's mileage is going to differ about that -- some are going to mind the changes more than others. You don't like them and that's fine, but like @tsukikoo00 said, making changes from the book doesn't necessarily mean "disrespect."

I've also read/watched "Road Home," and while I haven't read the book that "Hidden Love" is based on, I did watch that drama as well, and what I would say about both is that their stories are much simpler to tell. "Road Home," especially, has always read more like a sketch/outline of a novel to me -- I don't mean that as a criticism, as I really love that book too. If anything, it's a compliment in that it means I want more from the author. I actually had hopes that the drama might build on that, but it didn't. There were a few changes made there, including some fleshing out of certain things and for censorship reasons, but on the whole, you're right - the drama stayed fairly faithful to the book and in that regard, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I got a little bored. It was that predictable.

I don't feel that way with FoMH. There's predictability and there's not -- although I can be certain of what will happen, i don't know how the drama will get us there. That holds my interest. Additionally, as indicated, it's a much more complex book. The characters are more complex. In a book medium, it's easier for an author to tell us what a character is thinking/feeling because they have only to share those thoughts with us. A scriptwriter can't do that - either they have to have characters speak their thoughts out loud in a drama (which isn't always practical since most people don't walk around muttering to themselves) or they have to find some other way through the storytelling to convey those thoughts. I think this drama is doing that. Similarly, in the book, there would be transition moments where the author could directly state things like, "Several months passed after that," before showing us the next "scene" between the main characters. Time skips of that nature in a drama are harder to do, which is why we've had this period of "filler" scenes as some people like to describe them. Personally, I've really enjoyed this time of getting to see the leads in their respective work spaces, and getting to know them better as individuals. I don't mind these changes; indeed, I quite like them, and I think the drama has otherwise done a good job of keeping to the spirit of the book.

A drama can make changes without disrespecting its original source. Of course there are some dramas that so completely butcher the source that it's based on that yes, I agree with you, that can only be described as disrespect. On the flip side, I've also watched a few dramas where I've walked away thinking either it's better than the book it's based on or it helped me to have a better appreciation of the book because the adaptation was just that good. In this case, I'm finding that there is a space for both the book and the drama in my heart, because they are both that enjoyable. I'm sorry that's not the case for you.

If I remember correctly the influencer was introduced as a friend. But still. Your family member is taken to the hospital and your first concern is for the broken down door and so you call your media friend? It’s like they never considered it might have been legit. Which is extra amazing when you consider the lifestyle that man was living… really, their first question should’ve been, “Great. Which one of his exotic animals was the one to finally do him in?”

Hopefully the drama will follow the book in this regard. She doesn't do anything else to him in the book and as has been previously mentioned, in the very end, it will be the Meng Family who needs evidence from his cousin to clear MYC's name, so... fingers crossed.

Ep 20. The end of the scene between XQ's mother and SY. After he walks away from the table, the mom says out loud to absolutely no one, "Pity."

How should we interpret that one comment?

It made me nervous... I interpreted it as something along the lines of a sarcastic, "Pity, now I'll have to do something about you." But really, it's an open-ended comment and I'm sure others walked away with different interpretations, so I'm curious as to what they might be. One friend thought it might have been along the lines of, "Pity, you're not from a different background," but I think that would be too generous of a comment from the likes of her.

That's why I had the alpaca push the bookcase over! I also did not want the alpaca to be trapped with her. In fact, once she's trapped and starving to death, the alpaca can stand over her and periodically spit on her. Haha!

[And yeah, I had a lot of questions about how the alpaca being in that apartment worked... but then those questions were soon eclipsed by the reactions from that man's family....]

Have the alpaca push the bookcase over her so she’s trapped in that tiny, chaotic apartment and starves to death - the bonus is the indignity of such a death when word gets out!

The first part appears to be JY doing what XQ had asked of him - to help her explain what she’d meant at the dinner. So he tells SY that he misunderstood her and that she was feeling bad for him when she said what she did.

The second part was hard for me to hear because of the background music but seemed to be JY asking if SY wasn’t missing XQ after not having seen her in a while.

The third part is SY deliberately calling XQ but then telling her that he misdialed and meant to call JY, and she’s like yeah… because our names are so close. He asks if she had to react so quickly and she answers she has high EQ.

If we're feeling frustrated imagine how frustrated the leads must be feeling -- and I actually think that's what makes what we are seeing right now realistic. They're caught in an amorphous relationship. They have feelings. They have doubts. They want to move forward. They have insecurities. They think about what they could gain. They think about what they could lose. They're bouncing around as they figure out their relationship, and we're being bounced around with them, but it's a necessary process and so just as they struggle so must we. But when the leads get there, it will be sweet and all of us - including the leads themselves - will appreciate better their relationship because of everything it took for them to get there.

If you look at the schedules for other dramas, including from other web platforms, it's actually quite common for there to be less episodes on the weekend. Just as there are other dramas who do air on the weekend. So I don't think it's that they haven't considered it. I'm sure they did and this is what they decided to come up with.

As mentioned above, in the book, she was assigned the role of the person who gets locked up and left after everyone is rescued. So on the day of the drill that's pretty much what happens. While everyone else is reacting she's just hanging out in the storage room doing this and that. She hears noise all around her but she remembers she's supposed to be the one is left behind so she doesn't say anything. She assumes it's not her turn yet. But after she waits a long while, she starts to think this isn't right, and just as she's about to get up, SY opens the door and finds her. He asks what she's doing but she's rather indignant at this point, pointing out that had this been a real fire, she'd have been a corpse by now. He responds by pointing out she never screamed our asked for help, lol. And she has nothing to say to that! That's when she finds out she had a scenario to follow, but the firemen were never given the scenario.

I doubt the room they were staying in was that far from the bathroom. She could've survived a 2-minute detour to gather her things. Haha! We know why they wrote it that way and that's okay. We will turn a blind eye to logic and accept it for what it is. ;-)

The arc that brings about change is finally here! I love how she tells the blind date - Yeah, all our qualifications match up, but we don't match as people. Because I already have a boyfriend. Woooo!