xmag

Considering China's attitude to time-travel, the whole drama is probably the FL falling asleep while playing her video-game and therefore she dreams the whole story.

The drama has a very video like feel. It doesn't feel like it's the past, it doesn't match.

Anyway, it's a light drama, nothing serious, it's okay to watch for Xing Fei and XKC.

C-dramas mothers never disappoint, don't they? 90% of the time, they want to rule their kids's lives.

At least, the FL, right from the start, resisted her mother's decisions and told her off for wanting to dictate her life. Good for her! And quite some deep and moving moments later on, on the abandonment issues the FL has, even though her mother loved her, she didn't really take care of her.

And the SML seems to have given up. Well, it was about time. But he was quite class about it. Like Fei Fei, in the end. They were in love (or had crushes) on the ML and FL but they never turned into villains.

Do you think it will be released on DVD or blu-ray? The BTS or cut scenes could be on there.

Yeah, when he woke up and put his hand on her bed, on what we are supposed to take as "her place last night" was indicating that they had slept together. Very naturally, I think. It's not as if light rom-coms can show sex scenes in dramas. I don't know if it's acceptable in other genres, though.

Have you seen all the episodes? This "noble idiocy" was resolved quickly in the next episode. That's one thing I like about this drama. There's no dragging and problems are discussed and solved.

Hmmm, so the uncle believes the son didn't help his mother when she had financial problems? Did I get that right? Why do I think that the uncle might not know the entire story? It's possible that the ML's mother didn't want to involve her successful son with her business problems.

Yes, progress in episode 18.

Oh, great, great theory, I didn't think about that! Yes, when you think back, he somehow survived when all the others died, why? When he had that "heart attack" earlier on, he remembered the group being led away and a woman who hit him. Did he die and was he... kicked out of the group because it wasn't his time to die so she gave him a kick to restart his heart?

Same with the FL. She was dead. I mean, she couldn't have survived being hanged, right? For long minutes, without trashing to survive. And she came back to life.

So what is going on, here?

Okay, I caved, I couldn't stay away and I had to watch the last two episodes. I thought that since the beginning, the main couple had been rather mature and would discuss things, the same would happen in the next episode and I was right!

Fei Fei is, as I expected, the annoying SFL who is in love/has a crush on the ML since childhood but she wasn't the antagonist and she proved it here.

I think the uncle will regret siding with the villain, here. He might want his nephew to suffer but he might draw a line here with his associate taking down the nursing him his beloved sister had created. And oh my god, that guy should watch dramas to know what to say and not to say to a woman he wants to date. This is the worst "date me / let's get married" proposal I have seen in a long time!

The village is still as beautiful as ever, the villagers colorful and the FL's office is a dream. I want one like hers!

It's possible that Old Chen is Fatty Tang, too. It's obviously someone we should pay attention to, since he keeps appearing at odd times in the drama so there must be a reason to this madness.

Sigh, the episode had started so well and of course, things went wrong. I'm starting to wonder if I won't wait until all the episodes aired to binge-watch it because between Fei Fei who is annoying (but not a villain, she was adorable with the elders at the nursing home), Shu Yue back very soon to help Fei Fei, the villain making his move, and the uncle who is still angry with his nephew...

Yeah, it's going to be stressing to watch. We'll see, maybe the ML and FL will work it out and face the storm together, with the villagers, the ML's father, and why not the uncle, Fei Fei and Shu Yue? it would be a pleasant surprise to see them all working together to help the ML.

Wait and see I haven't decided. I 'm not giving up on this drama, I love it so much, I just might wait to binge-watch it.

We already saw Changdong disguised as an old man in episode 1 and it was 100% Bai Yu. It was so obvious that it was funny. But here, I don't know, when I saw the puppet master and Old Chen, that was my first reaction: "their faces are similar, it's like Old Chen is Master Li, only much older".

I even went back to watch the two men again and I had this feeling that Old Chen was the puppet master. I could be wrong, wait and see. But it's strange to have that Old Chen/Painting Lady scene in the middle of the episode. It's like it doesn't make sense to go from the characters in the Yumen Pass to Old Chen in our world when we don't know who he is and who is telling the story... that we are watching.

And why is Old Chen/Painting Lady back in that episode? the episode where CD and YLC meet the puppet master? A coincidence?

What if Painting Lady is CD and YLX's daughter, who was raised in the normal world by Old Chen? That would explain why she has no idea about this story, if her parents died or are stuck in the Yumen Pass and she was raised in CD's world by Old Chen.

Just a theory, I could be totally off. It's based on a book so maybe some of you know the ending. Which could have been changed for the drama, though.

Is Old shen, the old man telling a story to the young lady painter, the puppet master from the Li family, only older?

If so:

- the entire drama is a story he created and is telling to the young lady painter,

- the story he is telling is based on a legend he heard,

- the story is based on a true story he heard about,

- the story he is telling is the true story he lived with the main characters and he managed to get out of the Yumen pass

Also, apparently, there are people who can go out of the Yumen pass and not die since there's stuff from our world, like tv, electricity, parkings for cars.... it was brought there by them; so ordinary people from the pass can't get out but some people like our FL can. Maybe because she is from a famous family from the pass?

From what I could understand, her blood opens the door to the Yumen pass. I'm not sure I understand everything, maybe I'm wrong: there's OUR dimension, then there's the other dimension where the General sent all the sorcerers and demons. But there's also the Yumen Pass. Is it the place in-between the two dimensions ???

Also, the sandstorm which killed the ML's friends, was it... alive? has it found a way to come into our dimension?

Evidently, there's a door which the FL can pass through from one dimension to another. I thought she was from the Demon dimension but I remember one of her dream where as a kid, she was taken by bikers and I had the feeling that it was on OUR side. So was she from our side and was she some kind of chosen one to open the door between the dimensions and was she sent to train in the Demon dimension?

Yeah, when we don't practise a language, we lose quickly what we learned. I learned spanish in school, and it's a language close to french but decades later, I don't remember a single thing!

Yep, judging by the intro where she is in the SML's arms and there's a moment between them (so not a spoiler since it's in the intro since episode 1), I'm sure they will end up together.

I'm surprised the case of the missing friends was solved this fast. It's good, though, no dragging, and it's been at least 12 episodes that the ML has been looking for answers about them.

Although, I have a question: when they were in the desert, 2 years ago, they were on OUR side, right? Then there was that huge sand storm which killed them all but the ML (why did he survive?). Because to enter this other dimension, the corn is needed. So they were on OUR side. But their bodies ended up on the other side.

Was it because they were at the border with the other dimension that their bodies were transported to the other dimensions while their souls died in our dimension?

Or did they survive the tempest and were captured by people from the other dimension (I seem to remember, when the ML had his heart attack, that he saw the group being taking away and a woman hitting him?), where they were killed?

Maybe based on the legend that the General banished those sorcerers to another realm which isn't... material like rock?

Or in french, lol. But yeah, at this point, it's an obsession, for her. She spent years dreaming of him that she can't let go. I really think that she believes herself in love, while she is in love with the idea of him and the idea of love.

If I'm not mistaken, she will open her eyes and will meet another guy (SML) and realize that what she felt for the ML was more, as you said, a crush/obsession that she mistook for love.

After seeing her starting to cry after confessing and being rejected, I think she is in love. But a love... how could I say that in english? I think she had a kid crush on the rich kid from the city who used to come to his mother's village as a kid and who would play with her.

She developped this vision of him as superior because of his social status and therefore, he was like a prince, to her.

Does she really love the real him, though? Maybe, maybe not. I think she will open her eyes that what she felt was a child crush she never let go of and that she mistook that for love.

"Dear Mr Hermitage" is a rom-com where she shines. It's a feel-good, lovely drama with a normal ML and FL (as in, behaving like 20 something in love would), absolutely beautiful sceneray (shot near the Laos and Thailand border), a bit of mystery and two characters who aren't afraid of physical contact, like in many Cdramas.

The first 2 episodes are a bit... not rough but some didn't like her in those episodes but after that, she is wonderful. This drama is such a wonderful underrated gem.