Reviews

99%

This drama delivered a well paced and well told story. The only exception for me was the crazy gal working at the time bureau that changed from wannabe assassin girl Friday to sorry didn’t mean it so please believe I’m sorry wanna help you gal.I was surprised that the 40’s Xun character was so selfish and manipulative. I spent a good part of the drama not really liking him. I was in agreement with him about the gpa bias against him because that did cause preventable conflict to a grating level at times. The cast did a wonderful job with their characters and they all left distinct impressions whether you liked them or not. The twist at the end as Dr. Yu let Xun see the burden placed on Zhao Zuo You causing him to not participate in his own life because he felt it all predetermined and he couldn’t defeat time. Xun finally won me over when nursing Gpa and accepting the day to day dealing with life as it is, not how he could manipulate and control things. We got to see how their biases blinded them to things and their change of perspective when the blinders removed. The sweet love story of the teens, the harsh conflict of 40’s wanting divorced, and the lament of the gpa wanting to save the wife he lost. The exploration of friendships and how true are they when it hits the fan and times are hard. How much do we really value friends and family when they force us to live up to their ideals and expectations? Do we bow and submit or stand up for ourselves when challenged by parents and teachers to do better but as they want to direct rather than trust you to choose for yourself? The act of bravery at the end by stopping the video and TuTu keeping her name makes us wonder if this was the correction program correcting itself? It lets us wonder how much say we have in the direction of our life’s choices—do we decide or is it preplanned? What degree does free will govern us? This was a thoughtful drama that gave slices of life views at different key points in time of personal development —youthful first dreams, midlife disappointment in career and relationship choices, aged success and regret. All of us deal with this to different degrees and this let us ponder what if my older self could direct my younger self in a better direction? And the real answer turned out to be that the younger version tended to be the reminder of what’s really important and was as good of a teacher as pupil. That we experience life best by trying to be our better selves and taking it a day at a time. The cast and production team did an excellent job of letting us see and appreciate the different stages of Zhao Zuo You’s life and what influences helped him progress or held him back. To see what degree he had a say in his choices and the people he kept in his life. And dealing with the capriciousness of life that provides both hope and despair. It thoughtfully brings things full circle and left us with hope for a bright future in spite of the odds.

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so many emotions, Shu Lang break's my…

so many emotions, Shu Lang break's my heart & that ending (or a bit before that) his breaking down & talking about one's taking their own life & how he understands the despair, was upsetting. cause i got the helplessness he felt throughout this ep. it built slowly & got worse & worse, as a viewer watching him i felt impotent to even think up a way to help him, so how would he feel; powerless? vulnerable? exposed??? & all alone - isolated. it's like u r drowning & there is nothing & none to hold onto - so Shu Lang actually verbalizing what was evidently building throughout this ep, broke my heart. sadly given Fan Xiao crazed obsessiveness, his stalking him & being there at every turn - any glimmer of hope for an out is extinguished, before it has a chance to grow & offer Shu Lang an out. *********************************************************************************************also he is so devastated, yet it isn't in him to be cruel, he just wants to move on & forget everything that happened with Fan Xiao, it broke him so much. cause if he wasn't broken he would've followed through with his threat at the start & hurt Fan Xiao not just topped him, but every chance he gets he isn't interested in playing games, he just wants to put this period behind him & move on. which i so get - *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************Fan Xiao on his part keeps reminiscing about the past, about what he had with Shu Lang - a past that was built on lies & one he destroyed with his own hands. but like a child he wants to rewind time & for them to go back to how it was, as if anyone could forget everything he had done & how he had devastated Shu Lang. doesn't he get it? **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************but i also think at this point in time there is nothing he can say & do that will make Shu Lang forgive him. idk if even Shu Lang was given time to heal, he would accept Fan Xiao down the line - in a few yrs. *****************************************************i get why Fan Xiao is this desperate & can't let Shu Lang go, but that doesn't mean Shu Lang should forgive & forget - i doubt he can. this was one hell of an ep with all these conflicting emotion's, i feel bad for them both (Shu Lang more) but i don't see how they can regain what was lost. something really world shattering needs to happen, to one or both for Shu Lang to want to reach out to Fan Xiao again. this on hell of a ride, can't wait for the next ep -

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