xmag

Yeah, I watch modern Cdramas, mostly rom-coms, because I want positivity. I don't want my dramas to end in tragedy. But " A beautiful lie" ends like that.

I don't care that the "reunion" was shot: it didn't feel real. That filter, like the one when she first hallucinated him in Sunan, yeah, not good for her mental health.

That was the subtle hint I was talking about: technically, a happy ending. But if you watch closely, it's not. If it was, he would have come back at the beginning of the episode, explained what had happened to him and we would see him with his family.

Here, only the FL sees him and it ends abruptly with this unreal filter. It feels unfinished.

She hallucinates the ML, like the ML hallucinated the dead kid. So chances are that the ML is also dead, hence why she hallucinates him.

The difference is, the ML knew the child was dead and was feeling guilty for not saving him.

The FL.... maybe suspects that the ML is dead but she is in denial and her brain creates those hallucinations of the ML. She probably feels guilty, like the ML felt but for a different reason: she was the one who came up with the fake alive child, to get him to go to Sunan, the origin of his trauma.

And going back was what killed him. When she realizes that, she collapases and she starts hallucinating him because she needs to believe that somehow, he is alive somewhere.

The brain is a complex machine, after all.

So she ML is dead and she is having mental health issues, from which she might not recover.

I would love to be wrong. And it would be easy to give us a 5 mn bonus scene explaining the ending. The fact that we didn't even get those 5 minutes... doesn't bode well for a HE.

Maybe the director will come out and say that he is real. I seem to remember that the director of "Bright Eyes in the dark" posted about it being a HE even though it didn't look like it.

But yeah, it's not the first time that directors go the "Shrodinger's ending": both endings could be valid, happy one or sad one, but if you pay close attention, it's subtle but it's a sad ending. I don't know why they do that.

It would be easy: shoot a 5 mn bonus scene, showing the two main leads in their home, with the ML explaining that he had been beaten and kidnapped by rebels who forced him to do surgery for their soldiers.

He was then liberated thanks to Chinese Special Forces and brought back home after a debriefing.

HE, and they have a kid, like in the orignal novel.

The last episodes made sure to have the FL go through the same trauma as the ML. She goes to the same place, Sunan, where the kid died and the ML, who had gone there to help, started having mental issues.

The FL goes to Sunan where she had sent the ML, hoping that he would heal there. He dies, like the kid he tried to save. The FL starts hallucinating shortly after his "vanishing act", and she keeps hallucinating once back home.

Basically, repeating the same trauma as the ML.

Good explanation for the drama's title. Someone mentioned on this topic of discussion that the writer also wrote for Love is Panacea, which also had a sad ending.

When she hallucinates their reunion and their wedding in Sunan, there was that blueish filter, the same we see in the last scene.

Also, when he realized that the FL is in Sunan, he rushes to her, but 4 guys grab him and you hear a short, doom music.

Then later on, his pen is sold by another guy, who probably found it. Same with his bag.

At least a year passes by. He never contacts his parents, including his mother who has health issues. He never contacts his sister. Or his friends. Or the FL. Or XiXi. He never posts pics on his phone. He never writes to anyone.

One day, his sister comes home looking very sad. She was the only one, with the FL, to know the truth. The parents don't know. They lie to them, hoping that he would come back, that he had vanished of his own free will (but the last time we, viewers, see him, he is grabbed by four bandits/robbers).

But then, the sister appears and she is... the picture of tragedy. Maybe she learned something? At that moment, whatever she knows, she gives the FL the papers making her the owner of her brother's flat. He had told his sister that he wanted the FL to inherit his flat.

Why does she do that, at that precise moment in time? Unless she learned from the authorities that her brother was dead. Or presumed dead. Secret services in the world investigate and learn stuff. Someone could have told an agent that a chinese tourist had been kidnapped and killed in Sunan, but couldn't tell where his body was, so no way to confirm that it was the ML.

Unfortunately, this kind of things happen in real life.

What we know is that he was getting better. Then he was kidnapped by 4 guys. So either he was killed and his body left to rot somewhere and never found or he is an hostage of rebels. Or he has amnesia but it would be easy for people to bring him to other chinese living there.

And the filter used for their "reunion", it was unreal. Plus at one point, look at his hand on her, it seems as if he is not there. There's nothing solid in that reunion.

Plus the fact that she keeps hallucinating everywhere...

The director went the Shrodinger's ending: we see the main couple reuniting, but everything indicates that it's not a real one.

Typical of some directors who want to be edgy. It reminds me of "Bright Eyes in the Dark ", where the ML, also a hero who saves people, goes away, the FL lives her life (a dancer, too) and in the end, there's a representation but the seat where the ML should have been is empty.

Later on, we see the ML, alone, not interacting with anyone, as if he was a ghost and that ends there.

Same here with "A beautiful lie". The ML, a heroic doctor, goes away, the FL goes on living, she sees the ML everywhere and we "see" the ML, but in such a way that it hints at him being dead.

He gets a mail from a friend that the kid might still be alive. He goes to Sunan? I think it's Sunan. He investigates and believes that the kid is alive. His mental health improves. He contacts the FL.

But apparently, it was a lie orchestrated by the psychiatrist and the FL and the foreign friend to get him to go to Sunan and confront the origin of his trauma.

The FL goes there and he sees her. He understands that it was all a lie (maybe that's where the title of the drama comes from? A beautiful lie from the FL to help him heal?)

After that, he vanishes. HIs bag is found. Nobody knows what happened to him, dead, alive, we don't know.

Time goes by, the FL goes on hoping, and she hallucinates the ML (basically, she has now the same mental health issues that the ML had). Even when his sister, who seems to know more about her brother's fate, gives the FL the papers making her the owner of his apartment since it was her brother's wish a year ago. So voila. She inherits his flat. He never contacts anyone in a year, not his parents (and his mother was sick with diabetes and in hospital), not his sister, not his friends, not the FL. He never posts pics. His bag was found so it suggests that something bad happened to him. Killed and left to rot somewhere in the desert? An hostage of rebels? We'll never know.

It ends up with the FL having a dream the ML is back, she gets up, goes to a public place and bam, out of the blue, the ML appears and they hug. Except that the ML is eerie, unreal, and it's easy to deduct that it's another hallucination.

End of drama.

If there was a second season, that could work. Or a bonus episode. But no, that was the ending.

I can't believe they went the "Bright Eyes in the Dark " ending road.

God, I'm angry. 36 episodes for THAT???

He is dead. The sister even gave the FL the papers to his apartment. Why now? Maybe she was the one in the family in touch with the chinese authorities about her brother's disappearance and after a while, the authorities declared him officially missing and presumed dead?

Hence the reason why she was so grave when she gave the documents to the FL. She knew that there was no hope and that it was best for the FL to accept it.

Except that she didn't and now she is the one suffering from hallucinations. She has mental health issues because of him.

Whether he chose to disappear for a while and something bad happened to him, we'll never know because there won't be a season 2 and there won't be a bonus episode.

Probably the director will talk and say that he was really there in the end, to calm down the fans.

But he wasn't there, period.

Yeah, I thought back to his bag being found. Meaning, he has no ID papers, no passports, so he is probably dead. Or an hostage of rebels but generally, countries know when their people are hostages somewhere and they tell the families.

So he is "missing". No way that was him in the end, it was too... unreal.

I understand him being angry at being tricked by his friends and the FL, but not coming back to his parents, his sister, his friend, XiXi? No way.

The FL's brother told the blunt truth: he isn't coming back.

I can' t believe the director tricked the viewers with that fake reunion. We aren't stupid. No contact, no letters, no phone call, no pics posted on his phone, nothing. He is probably dead.

You're right. There was an eerie feeling in the last scene, check out his hands while "holding her", it looks like he's not there, like he is an illusion. And the actress has been crying and picturing him everywhere she goes, so no reason to believe that's not the case here.

The irony: he left because of his hallucinations and now it's the FL who is constantly hallucinating.

I refuse to believe that it was really him. She had a dream, rushed and out of the blue, he was there? Yeah, no. This isn't a fantasy/paranormal drama where this kind of things could happen.

It's a rom-com. No paranormal stuff.

He's been away for at least a year. He isn't posting on his phone. He hasn't contacted his parents (his mother having health issues on top of that), or his friends or his sister or the girl he loves. Either he is dead, or he has amnesia but there's no reason for him to not come back.

It will be interesting to hear what the director or actors have to say about this ending. They'll probably say: "of course it's a HE, he is back, isn't he"?

Except that it doesn't look like he is back. He looks like an illusion and it looks like the FL is losing it.

Unfortunately, there are medications which.... how to translate that? control the emotional state. My sister is mentally handicapped and has to take plenty of meds. One of them is for a specific pathology and it does that: before, she used to feel so much that she would go on rants and episodes and make herself sick because of those strong emotions. It was very destructive for her and she was in real psychological pain.

Now that she takes those meds, she is much better. She still feels, but her emotions don't overcome her anymore. Of course, she is used to taking meds, has been taking them for decades, contrary to the ML who is just starting them so she isn't as apathic as he is. For someone who is just starting to take those kind of medication, yeah, the first months/years can lead to this kind of reaction.

Artists in China aren't allowed a private life, love stories. Or when they have one, they have to take incredible precautions, like we saw in the last episode. That's got to be heavy stuff to not be able to just go outside with the person you love.

It's strange for me to get that but that's how it seems to work in Asia, or South Korea. It's sad. That would explain how things turned out in the novel the drama is based on.

It' s a nice drama. Nothing out of the ordinary but still nice. I am more interested in the second couple than the main one, though. Maybe because they are a bit older and in a more complex situation: the SML is a soldier who has seen things, done things and who had trouble and still has trouble being in a relationship with a movie star.

He has a self-esteem problem. A simple, poor soldier while she is a famous, wealthy, beautiful movie star who is loved by millions of people.

He doesn't see himself as worthy of her, hence the reason why he left her and refuses to give their relationship another try. He thinks she deserves someone better and of her own social circle.

I think the SFL will try to move on with her agent but they will both realise that it's not working and they are better as friends. And as to the SML, apart something dramatic happening to him, I don't see how he could change his mind about the SFL.

Or maybe it will be simply to see his best friend, a doctor, managing to be in a successful relationship with a famous actress, that will cause him to evolve on that subject?

Probably imaginary. Everytime he goes there, magically, the young boy runs to him. As if he is always there waiting for him. In a flashback/nightmare, we saw a woman asking the ML to protect "her baby", maybe the little boy?

So I would say the ML is imagining the young boy, maybe living a normal life and growing up, even if he died a few years ago while he was much younger.

Oh my god, episode 8!!! Lol! I mean, the first 5 minutes, I was in shock then bam, the twist. And then the son's dream had me laughing so much. And the murder twist, with the cat and the dog's faces when they realized their act caused the death of the guy, that was hilarious.

Average so far. I have only watched two episodes and while there seems to be a good mystery, the FL is annoying and for someone so high in her career, she can behave like a kid. The ML is... okay, I guess? Nothing really out of this world.

I'll give it another chance, just in case. I need some good adventure drama since Tibetan sea flower ended.

Yeah, I watched the last episodes. The brother goes to the spiritual retreat to be the new Deren (I wonder if he will quit at some point, like the previous Deren), and his sister... goes into the world to live her own life?

I mean after that. Do they reunite? Does he spend the rest of his loooooong life at the monastery? Does she get married? Does she have kids? Does she join the Zhangs again and stay with the Wangs?

I was disappointed when Wu Xie said that this was the last time they were on the same side and would be enemies the next time they meet. Does this mean she stays with the Wangs? I mean, the future is not written. She can do a 180 and be on the patriarch's side. After all, she seemed opened to Wu Xie when he told her how naive her brother and her had been, with the ZQL murder spree. I thought he had opened her eyes so why would they be enemies next ?

I thought the antagonists in this drama were great. Started as enemies, then antagonists, before turning into "friends" (for Feng) and allees for this adventure for the Zhangs siblings.

There's potential for more adventures for the Zhangs siblings, IMO.

It's sad, in the end, the whole group betrayed him. I don't know if Wu Xie told him about the whole story. I also wonder what happened to the Zhang siblings. On the path to redemption, they deserve to come back, somehow. They were interesting characters.

I must have missed an episode because I don't remember seeing Wu Xie's mother and grandmother. In which episode do they appear?