This review may contain spoilers
just watch At 25:00 in Akasaka instead
Before I get into my many complaints, let me be nice and say the few things I did like:
- good acting esp from the two leads, some nice cinematography
- Su Yi and Su Bai as characters and their dynamic
- the way the show got kind of meta in its critique of censorship
- the show exploring what it's like to become disabled
- the press conference comeuppance for Fang Runzhi was kinda awesome ngl
Okay, now that I've said that time to be a hater!
Things fell apart for me by the second episode with Su Yi mentioning he is only 19. We are never told Pei Jia's age, but as he's been acting for a while and he was in the public eye even before that, I imagine he's got to be mid-late 20s. And then a few episodes later we learn that Su Yi sent Pei Jia a piece of fanmail a year prior that he really values so like....... we've got Su Yi who is still a TEENAGER who has very much looked up to Pei Jia and idolized him for years and I'm supposed to find this dynamic cute and not think that Pei Jia is taking advantage of someone very young who doesn't have a solid sense of self yet?????????????? BONKERS.
I kept watching bc I'm apparently a masochist and this is popular, so I wanted to see just how bad the rest of it is and honestly even ignoring that the power imbalance was creepy as hell, I do not see the appeal of this one. Pei Jia's feelings come out of nowhere -- he clearly finds Su Yi super aggravating in the first episode but then in the second episode he's giving Su Yi pointers on a shared scene but outside of that he's still extremely rude to Su Yi and the vibe is that he doesn't like him at all and then in the third episode Yi Wei forces them to do that game where they ask each other questions and one of Pei Jia's questions is "if you could have dinner with anyone who would it be?" and Su Yi is like "you" and then suddenly Pei Jia has a gigantic crush on Su Yi and is obsessed with him?????? What????? The vibes are self-absorbed and egotistical.
When we first meet Fang Runzhi and he cornered Su Yi at that dinner, there are no words to express the relief I felt that he didn't assault Su Yi... but then he does at a party a few episodes later and then the show becomes primarily about trying to expose Fang Runzhi as a predator. Pei Jia (rightfully!!!!) blames himself for Su Yi's assault as he knew Fang Runzhi sexually harassed other actors he managed and didn't say anything to warn Su Yi beyond vague pleas for Su Yi not to sign a contract with him. I get not being able to talk about your experiences with sexual harassment/sexual assault as someone who has experienced those things as well, but come on, you can't just be like "hey, I don't want you to sign with this guy, you don't know what he's truly like" and leave it at that when he is a literal abuser! Thank God the press conference exposing Fang Runzhi was as satisfying as it was bc otherwise my rating would be even lower. But even the press conference doesn't completely escape my criticism bc it's insane to me that Pei Jia was going to play the recording of Fang Runzhi admitting to assaulting Su Yi when Su Yi wanted to back out bc he didn't want to publicly disclose being assaulted and if Su Bai didn't talk some sense into him, Pei Jia would've still played the tape even against his wishes??????? Like..... no???? The abuse survivor is the one who makes decisions about disclosing their own assault, violating their consent on disclosing that for a public takedown is so shitty and a terrible thing to do to someone you claim to care about????????
And as for the secondary romance -- Su Bai / Yi Wei was so annoying!!!! Yi Wei never valued Su Bai as a partner and then wouldn't accept their breakup! And I typically hate when people use the "they have no chemistry" complaint bc chemistry is subjective but.... they truly had no chemistry. They're seemingly back together by the end given we see them holding hands before the press conference, but I couldn't feel anything but exhaustion about it. I'll admit that Yi Wei did win some points for his part in exposing Fang Runzhi, but god I just found him insufferable overall.
Yeah, I just didn't enjoy this. Like... at all.
- good acting esp from the two leads, some nice cinematography
- Su Yi and Su Bai as characters and their dynamic
- the way the show got kind of meta in its critique of censorship
- the show exploring what it's like to become disabled
- the press conference comeuppance for Fang Runzhi was kinda awesome ngl
Okay, now that I've said that time to be a hater!
Things fell apart for me by the second episode with Su Yi mentioning he is only 19. We are never told Pei Jia's age, but as he's been acting for a while and he was in the public eye even before that, I imagine he's got to be mid-late 20s. And then a few episodes later we learn that Su Yi sent Pei Jia a piece of fanmail a year prior that he really values so like....... we've got Su Yi who is still a TEENAGER who has very much looked up to Pei Jia and idolized him for years and I'm supposed to find this dynamic cute and not think that Pei Jia is taking advantage of someone very young who doesn't have a solid sense of self yet?????????????? BONKERS.
I kept watching bc I'm apparently a masochist and this is popular, so I wanted to see just how bad the rest of it is and honestly even ignoring that the power imbalance was creepy as hell, I do not see the appeal of this one. Pei Jia's feelings come out of nowhere -- he clearly finds Su Yi super aggravating in the first episode but then in the second episode he's giving Su Yi pointers on a shared scene but outside of that he's still extremely rude to Su Yi and the vibe is that he doesn't like him at all and then in the third episode Yi Wei forces them to do that game where they ask each other questions and one of Pei Jia's questions is "if you could have dinner with anyone who would it be?" and Su Yi is like "you" and then suddenly Pei Jia has a gigantic crush on Su Yi and is obsessed with him?????? What????? The vibes are self-absorbed and egotistical.
When we first meet Fang Runzhi and he cornered Su Yi at that dinner, there are no words to express the relief I felt that he didn't assault Su Yi... but then he does at a party a few episodes later and then the show becomes primarily about trying to expose Fang Runzhi as a predator. Pei Jia (rightfully!!!!) blames himself for Su Yi's assault as he knew Fang Runzhi sexually harassed other actors he managed and didn't say anything to warn Su Yi beyond vague pleas for Su Yi not to sign a contract with him. I get not being able to talk about your experiences with sexual harassment/sexual assault as someone who has experienced those things as well, but come on, you can't just be like "hey, I don't want you to sign with this guy, you don't know what he's truly like" and leave it at that when he is a literal abuser! Thank God the press conference exposing Fang Runzhi was as satisfying as it was bc otherwise my rating would be even lower. But even the press conference doesn't completely escape my criticism bc it's insane to me that Pei Jia was going to play the recording of Fang Runzhi admitting to assaulting Su Yi when Su Yi wanted to back out bc he didn't want to publicly disclose being assaulted and if Su Bai didn't talk some sense into him, Pei Jia would've still played the tape even against his wishes??????? Like..... no???? The abuse survivor is the one who makes decisions about disclosing their own assault, violating their consent on disclosing that for a public takedown is so shitty and a terrible thing to do to someone you claim to care about????????
And as for the secondary romance -- Su Bai / Yi Wei was so annoying!!!! Yi Wei never valued Su Bai as a partner and then wouldn't accept their breakup! And I typically hate when people use the "they have no chemistry" complaint bc chemistry is subjective but.... they truly had no chemistry. They're seemingly back together by the end given we see them holding hands before the press conference, but I couldn't feel anything but exhaustion about it. I'll admit that Yi Wei did win some points for his part in exposing Fang Runzhi, but god I just found him insufferable overall.
Yeah, I just didn't enjoy this. Like... at all.
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