Bai Hehuai Lover

My review is probably going to be a bit harsh so I do want to start off saying that I overall had a nice time w this! It's probably not something I will revisit, but I still rank it above a lot of other CDramas I've watched and I really enjoyed Gong Jun in this.

So, firstly, I should probably say I don't fully understand the central conflict of this story: that Shen Xiezhi and Qin Rui can't date bc their jobs. I understand that if they are working in the same area of law that there's the potential for them being assigned the same case which would obviously be a conflict of interest, but if that ever happened couldn't Xiezhi just recuse himself and someone else get assigned as the judge? Bc if that's still not allowed, then are friendships between judges and lawyers in the same field being scrutinized like this too? Bc that could also become a conflict of interest p easily. But whatever, the story needed a conflict of why they couldn't date and this was all the writers had after the fire akjshdfakjsdf. Ok.

That said, I liked their dynamic. They worked together really, really well and I love how once they got over the initial dislike of each other, they were on the same wavelength when it came to trying to ensure the best possible outcome for all parties involved. It was also lovely seeing how much Xiezhi changed over the course of the show — how he wouldn't even accept food from Qin Rui at the start bc that would be crossing the boundaries of judge-lawyer, but then as they grow closer he's buying her a 6 month flying pass to allow her to visit her grandmother. And don't get me started on the last few episodes, omg, there was a sequence where Qin Rui was sitting outside the courthouse and Xiezhi saw her and was overcome w this need to talk to her and him racing down the stairs to try to reach her before she left... I got heart palpitations over it.

Secondly, I think this show did have its heart in the right place but the gender politics left a lot to be desired imo which drags it down. I looooooooooove that the show encourages Qin Rui, Shu Jing, Yu Le, and the other women who work in the court to be ambitious and lets them be three dimensional, but the women who are defendants/plaintiffs.... not so much. A lot of these cases were uhhhhhhhhh Rough to sit through to say the least. One of the first cases is a woman who learns her husband has been cheating on her and in a breakdown upon seeing photos, she starts screaming about how she wants a divorce, just to have a meltdown about the idea of being single and insisting she wants to stay married the second she leaves the courtroom. Another case of a woman being sued by her two step sons bc they want money after their father's death, and yet another similar one of a daughter who is being sued by her two brothers bc their father died when she tried to rush him to the hospital on her bike — in both these situations, the woman is okay with losing absolutely everything to preserve the honor of the deceased. There's another case near the end of the show where an older woman is being conned by a younger man and he tells her to her face that he initiated their relationship bc he wanted her money and she starts screaming about how "if you leave me, I will have no reason to keep living." There's also the last case of an elderly couple where the man wanted to get divorced after learning their adult child was not biologically his and he's just a rude bastard who treats her awfully and she just played dutiful caretaker to him and was miserable about the idea of the divorce being finalized. Like the women were reduced to either their lives revolving around their romantic partner or being a caretaker OR they were demonized for not falling into those expectations (i.e. the vapid social influencer mom who abused her kid that got repeatedly embarrassed by the narrative). Like, as a lesbian who has decentered men from my life, I have just deconstructed to the point where seeing this kind of mentality is unbearable.

The case that troubled me the most though was Tongtong, a csa survivor. Tongtong is, UNDERSTANDABLY, very traumatized and doesn't know who she can trust after being attacked. Her memories of the rape are also jumbled (as is very common for traumatic incidents) and she remembers a red mark on her attacker's neck, and also seeing a red mark on the neck of another man earlier on the day of the attack, so she jumps to the conclusion that that man was her attacker. This is fair and understandable. But imo the show treats her as very irrational, especially when the writers have her kidnap a child in an attempt to pressure the man she believes assaulted her into confessing his crime. And it doesn't help that as soon as her true attacker is arrested, she's only ever mentioned again in reference to how her accusation derailed the life of the man she accused. (Also the actual rapist............. I saw that reveal coming. The twist reveal that a victim trusts their perpetrator is tired. Unless we're actually interrogating how rape culture is enabled by society, I don't want to see this trope anymore.)

Also while I *did* like that the show encouraged the women working as judges and lawyers to prioritize their jobs... I don't exactly love how some of the women were written. At the start I really really really liked Shu Jing, but the last third of the show completely ruined her character for me. As soon as Tongtong's case is closed and the true rapist is arrested, Shu Jing latches onto the idea of her husband (the man Tongtong had accused) returning to being a judge and tries to force him to go back to that work. It's very obvious that he enjoys running his small restaurant and her ignoring his feelings and the way she discusses his job comes off as extremely classist and that she views working at a restaurant as 'beneath him'. This vibe of her being elitist just grows with the final case of a woman who wants to divorce her husband and get custody of their three children bc he is very neglectful, and Shu Jing wants to separate the kids because she thinks the mother's job in social media is too unstable and she can't be relied on to care for all three children on her own... despite the kids making it very clear they want to be with their mom (and as if ppl don't just suddenly lose their jobs regardless of industry all the time.... why is she so confident the father's income is so stable?). Imo the show doesn't even resolve her mentality, Shu Jing just injures herself and her husband is very attentive to her while she's recovering (even tho they've signed divorce papers) and she's just like 'well, I shouldn't have been trying to force you and actually I don't want to get divorced.' Like. Ok.... also now that I've mentioned that I am realizing that this show seems to be very against divorce which is... weird and feels a little nefarious tbh.

I'm sure I have more thoughts I could add but I've probably covered enough of my grievances lol. TLDR; the romance was pretty cute. I think the show had good intentions but missed the mark w its politics.