Nan Peng You Dian Dang Xing (2022)

Time Seems to have Forgotten-- an unexpected surprise

This is not a drama for everyone. Although I rate it 10/10, you need to have patience and an appreciation for a complicated mystery that is tangled up in knots. Story takes its time to introduce and build up on the characters and their stories. I feel like I am doing a jigaw puzzle while watching this. Like when we piece together a jigaw, we start with piecing together small sections of it, before finally connecting all of them and having a clearer picture of the final image.... The beginning part of drama feels slow and some might even find it boring. But do not skip or speed through the drama, because it drops nuggets of important information (in the form of flashbacks and conversations) that give you clearer ideal on the core mystery.

I have a lot of praise for the script! Although this is an IP adaptation, the original story is very brief, its title is "Boyfriends Pawnshop", and it is about 3 women who pawned their boyfriends in exchange for wishes fulfillment. I didn't read the novel, but base on its synopsis and novel length, I guess drama is very different from novel. Screenwriter has expanded on the novel original premise and produced an intricate story. By the way, the screenwriter seems to be a newbie, because she has no previous works listed at douban, this seems to be her first credited drama screenwriting. It is worth noting that the producer, is the same producer for The Rational Life and When We Were Young. All has very cohesive scripts that focus a lot on characterizations, with realistic slice of life parts.

Forgotten is unusual in the genre of fantasy mystery, very seldom we see such story in this genre with a lot of realistic slice-of-life. But director has successfully melts these elements together so we feel like the characters are people we know in real life, they could be staying next door..... it reminds me of another fantasy mystery romance story that has similar slice-of-life vibes: Be With You (Japanese movie). And the cinematography!! The art direction and sets are gorgeous ❤ That is the main reason I continue to watch although it felt slow and somewhat boring in the early eps... Now that I finished the drama, I feel an impulse to buy miniatures of the Bus and Penguin, if the production are selling these!! The last drama that makes me wanna buy its souvenirs was Royal Nirvana. So yes, this drama has moved me a lot.

It is also worth noting that the drama has a lot more to tell viewers than the story it has told. Other then the life questions of is it worth trading in your relationships for wishes for other parts of your life? It has also portrayed several different kinds of loves:- the "I love you but my career is more important" love, the misunderstood love, the abusive love, and friendships that got traded in for wishes, and how the pawnees suffer alone with the memories while the other party and everyone else have forgotten.... and the ultimate, the self-sacrificing love. Drama said the pawnshop flowers choose the next shopkeeper (or shop manager) but the truth is, the next shopkeeper is chosen base on what he/she has pawned and the purpose. Look at Mr Huang's and Lu Xiaofan's stories:- it is only when one person pawned the other person for something that benefits the other person, and the other person comes in to do a similar pawn to save the pawnee, that one of them is chosen as the next shopkeeper.

And that ending. Do stop reading now if you have not watch this drama!!!
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This is my interpretation:- when the pawnshop was burnt down and all the pawned memories are returned to the current pawnees, it is not possible for the timeline to continue as it is. Think about the chaos and confusion this caused. So God or Creator decided to rewind time back to the start of the oldest pawned memories in the shop. Now, when a typical pawnee dies, the pawned memories are permanent and can never be redeemed. So the earliest living pawnee at the time that the pawnshop burned down should not be more than 50 or 60 years. So, the main customers affected by the disaster are the pawns that Mr Huang handled in his time. My guess is time is rewind back, and instead of becoming the pawn shop shopkeeper, upon death, Mr Huang becomes an angel, and his mission is to reconnect back the pawnees with their previous pawned relationships. Because every action has a reaction, in the absence of the pawnshop, some people who were destined to meet would now not have met. Like in the case of Lu Xiaofan and Wu Yang, so Mr Huang is there as an angel to guide them to meet again. This is my interpretation of the ending.... You can also choose to see it as a fiction tale that Mr Huang told the customers at his noodle shop.

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I'm surprised this drama doesn't have as much reviews nor comments on MDL because it definitely has an interesting plot that is rare to find in dramas these days. The biggest con for this drama is that it is a slowburn for the first 10-15 eps. It took me 3 weeks to get through them but once I got to the middle of the drama, the plot thickened and I binged the rest in a day.

I really loved the romance and the whole concept of trading your friends/lovers' memories in exchange for wishes, and the consequences of doing so. What I find to be more tragic than death is when someone you loved and cared for(family, friends, lovers) don't remember you nor the good times and bad times you had together. Nothing is more painful than being "forgotten" and not being able to acknowledge your own memories, but it's the price these people chose to pay in order to defy fate.

I think this drama has an interesting take on the power of "memories". When I first started the drama, I thought memories was a small price to pay for the wishes these people were getting, but the more I watched, the more I realised that nothing is more painful than losing a relationship and being forgotten by the people who once loved and cared for you, just as you do for them. Realising that you're now nothing more than strangers and that you can no longer interact with them in fear of triggering their memories of you... That's just tragic. And I find it interesting how they make the pawners continue to have these memories, constantly reminding them that it was the price they chose to pay for their wish.

Overall, I think the drama has a good plot and an interesting take on "memories", but the pacing is all over the place, they could have summarised the first half into 5-6 eps and cut this drama to a 24 ep show. It's a story worth watching if you have the patience to sit through the first half of the drama. They are important in setting up the story, but unnecessarily long in my opinion.

This show was a 6-7 for the first half, and a 9 for the second half. Overall, it's an 8 from me.

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