Refreshing in the sea of same CDramas

The drama immediately pulls you in with two first episodes. A pearl diver and a sea merchant? Just reading that makes it exciting. A ship? Sea? Diving? We can finally take a breather from the countless CDramas set in the woods and experience something new and exciting.

No our female lead doesn't need a savior. She is badass, competent, determined, loveable and ready to do anything to achieve her dreams. A lot of dramas fail to make a female lead tough especially if she's portrayed in the same position as our female lead however our Pearl Girl only needs a small push and she can stand on her on two feet better than anyone. As her story progresses she is continuously met with people with ill intentions but her hope never dies out and she still keeps believing that good people do exist in this world and her willpower never dies.

The main lead is shown as an evil, strict and unforgiving man at first. First few episodes leaves a bad taste in your mouth as it often crosses the line with its torture scenes. I am truly against the torture of the female lead leading to love as it is something unforgivable but I chose to overlook it as if it didn't happen due to the interesting plot behind the romance however I do understand why many would be left angry and even drop the show over the female lead's treatment by the ml.

The ml reedems himself to a certain extent as we learn that he isn't truly evil. He grows to like the female lead as she continues to show her ferocity and intention to fight for herself. In some ways he finds her admirable and instead of saving her he is set on helping her do exactly what she wants. He is motivating, supportive in everything she's willing to learn, whether it is fighting or business as long as she proves herself. He never undermines her skills but motivates her to do better.

This is often overlooked by people as his actions can easy be seen as vicious however having ml experience a tragedy himself, he isn't just a man taking out his anger on others. He knows the struggles of this world, he knows people and their intentions and desires and his purpose it to teach the female lead exactly that, how to survive in this cold blooded world. He teaches her how to fight and fend for herself, often complimenting her intelligence and need to improve.

I do dislike that their romance starts off weak and sudden without us realizing when it was exactly that he started having feelings for her. I also wished that the romance started on ship and allowed them to bond more but the lore picked up fast and became more focused on business than the main couple.

I loved the couple separation because it allowed me to feel how much they truly loved each other however they have yet failed to execute it well as many other dramas do where, when two people yearn for each other, they cannot wait to be in each other's hands however instead of telling each other how much they missed each other for some reason there always must be that 3rd person revealing the truth. I will never understand how is learning something from a different source much better than the two characters being open to each other. Seeing their gaze change, their tears flow is much more touching than having a build up and having someone else break the news. I truly hope dramas break off this really bad cliche as this whole build up of them missing each other was crushed by her suddenly learning he had a reason to do it and then they act as everything is okay. The build up has reached it peak and then disappointed me.

However overall I still liked the drama very much and I might rewatch it. But it definitely has a lot of flaws I cannot just ignore and like I always say. For some reason, Chinese dramas have the best plot, the best peaks but often times they fail to make it work and lose that valuable moment, a chance for something remarkable and I don't know where this problem stems for but it's definitely a problem that needs a change.

Anyways, definitely a good watch. I still loved the show despite the flaws. Definitely one of the best dramas this year.

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Red Flag

Reposting because my review got deleted to manipulate the score

I watched Dylan Wang's and Bai Lu's previous work and I love them however this show didn't sit with me at all:

First few episodes were amazing. Shu Yi, a beautiful woman aware of her charms, good at her job,
bold and confident, she was a perfect female lead in a pile of female leads where a woman is represented as an insecure average woman, unaware of her good looks and why men like her. Loved her being straightforward and flirty putting the cold male character in a position of being adorably flustered by her charms.

Shi Yan, a beautiful and cold man whose charms come from his love towards his work. He is determined, ambitious and charming. Despite being distant and nonchalant with most things, he makes sure that around the woman he likes, he is ready to be the one to take the first step without shame. Especially if he is jealous.

However, after the 10th episode the story starts going south in many different ways. It is unclear whether Shu Yi immediately falls for Shi Yan's charms or if she is only doing that to assure her interview with him which doesn't fit her character. She is someone who's familiar to everyone she writes about. We are constantly told how amazing she s at her job which doesn't explain us why she has to seduce him in order to do her job properly since that did not help with anything.

She continues to send him flirty texts but the moment he takes the matters in his own hands, she pulls back despite her being the one to initiate it. The amount of times the character avoids and rejects the male lead's advances and kisses starts becoming annoying where the excitement before every kiss is followed by disappointment where it doesn't create the effect of suspense anymore.

Only in ep 20 do we find out her feelings about him which is extremely late. The story makes us think that Shi Yan's cold attitude was an issue but instead, it was always the female lead's insecurity of her feelings that was the issue. The fl is also put in a situation where she goes out on blind dates with another man due to her mother's nagging ignoring the fact that she already has someone she can introduce?

The show keeps repeating the same scenes. We see more finance related things and their work instead of romance. Numerous conferences which keep repeating whenever there's nothing else in the show.

The characters don't have a proper bonding time and everything they learn about each other is through a conversation of other people and eavesdropping. Most of the conversations happen over the phone not allowing them to have a single honest moment with each other to learn about each other which makes the relationship hard to believe in.

The couple keeps going back and forth until a certain amount episodes where the scriptwriter decides to suddenly throw all deep kisses at once which should've happened gradually in much earlier episodes.

Shi Yan's character is not supported by anything other than his looks and little lore we get from him acquaintances making us yearn to see more of him.

However, the actors did a good job at acting but the execution of the story was extremely poorly done for my taste. It is probably the fault of scriptwriter and not the actors themselves.

Lastly that the only well done execution of the character was Shi Yue, who, from a spoiled rich girl learns her obligations towards her work, her boss and also towards the one she likes.

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Had potential to be the best

Despite being a huge fan of both Ryan and Esther, and especially the screenwriter Bai Jin Jin I will still be objective with my review of this drama as I read the manhua as well and can compare both.

The drama starts amazing. The female lead is trapped in a fantasy world and has to seduce a villain to be able to survive, a very exciting concept that many enjoy and rarely anyone dislikes. For some time the drama achieves exactly that, it is funny, warm and definitely worth the hype but as the drama goes on it slowly strays away further from the introduced theme that we were sold and gets replaced by countless characters and their lore where two main leads suddenly feel like support characters in their own drama.

As much as I like that the show went a different path from manhua that turned quite toxic and dirty, the drama failed at finding a perfect balance and decided to go to the extreme making the leads romance seem like two kids in love. At the start there's tension between the leads and we are showered with many romantic and funny moments between them but at some point in the story, it falls off and we no longer feel that yearning between them despite the short amount of them being together.

However it wasn't about the lack of kisses but the lack of romantic moments after the couple got together. The two other main leads and the lore of countless other characters is shoved down our throat giving us only a minute of the two main leads bonding not allowing us to take it all in. Many of the other characters were quite underwhelming yet the need to highlight them just drained my energy as I saw no reason support nor like their lack of communication. I would've liked more seeing the lore of the tree people than a second couple who could not communicate for 20+ episodes.

After the couple finally realize they love each other, we start to get less and less of their moments together causing me to lose the connection between them because their love for each other wasn't believable to me anymore. As I was taking in the lore and desperately waiting for the couple to yearn for each other as they did in the manhua, I was quickly met with the disappointment that two two people who had their first love, which is supposed to be exciting, other now act like two really close friends or a couple that has been together for 40 years. The show continues to drift, focusing on giving us all the lore, wrapping things up losing the core of story in the process.

Now the ending of the show is amazing and the story is very beautiful however it failed to show us that these two people love each other unconditionally. Because of that, I could not cry nor feel the sadness of them losing each other. I will compare this to lbfad's ending where it was physically painful to see the two separated because we knew how much they loved and needed each other which I was really excited to see due to the both shows having the same screenwriter. The characters death did not bother me and I was fine with them dying as I saw at least some potential in a tragic plot but something in me wanted to care but I could not. I have already detached myself from the two main leads the moment we saw less and less of their love and within that died my need for them to be together.

Overall, the story is beautiful and the lesson with it as well but it lost it's most important topic of love and empathy for the purpose of lore forgetting that it is about a man who has never been properly loved and just yearned to be in peace, to be accepted and loved. Yet whoever worked on it cared more for him to beat the boss and meet 10 other characters than they cared about making us sympathize and feel their love.

I definitely thought this could top many of my favourite dramas but I don't think I can say that more. However it is still worth watching due to it's beautiful message at the end which is why I thought this drama had more potential due to its interesting story but what can you do. You can't tell us it's a love story and barely give us love.

I love this pairing and I hope to see them again in a drama that's going to give them justice like Moonlight did.

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From amazing to questionable

Honestly, when I first started watching this I couldn't understand why I didn't start earlier.
It was amazing. Every romantic moment was lovely, butterfly giving and so moving, I couldn't
stop watching it. The dialogues were so well written, and the leads did such a good job and made us
believe they truly loved each other. I definitely see why many cdramas after took inspiration from it.

But then the drama took a big turn and my obsession turned into "When will this end"
Constant repetition of the female lead saving her man, and him spitting blood felt
like I was watching and Indian show made with Powerpoint effects. After some time,
I also started getting annoyed by the main actress having to say his name 100 times because
she was constantly looking for him. Once quirky and fun female lead turned unlikeable and the love
story got lost in retelling the lore which is usually a big case with "romance cdramas" where you expect
more romance but it is always more important to tie the story and the lore together which is why the romance falls short.
Towards the end, the two leads became distant and my yearning for them to be together again fell off as their focus was more onto other things than each other. Overall I definitely think this drama does romance and love better than a large number of cdramas but it sadly failed to do it perfectly towards the end, however it is definitely worth a watch as it will make you lose it and fangirl a lot.

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Rewatching this in 2023 (Relationship between Narumi and Mizuho)

i watched this back in my high school days and I don't think my opinion of it changed much but I got to understand it more now that I am in my late 20's and I must say that the writer of this show is a genius when it comes to psychology and complexity of people's emotions. The show rather explores the realism of human emotions. It isn't just a light romance nor a mystery drama.

Something about Narumi Hikaru is different and quite misunderstood. His emotions cannot be read. and we only get an occasional glimpse of them that might make us wonder, but that is exactly why Narumi is such an interesting and unpredictable individual.

He grew up as a secluded individual, with a cruel mother who gave him no proper attention a mother should give a child and we can say that how he views women in the future is distorted by his mother. It is highly possible that Narumi's image of someone who sleeps around comes from the urge to kill the emptiness and loneliness he felt over the years which is why he needs a constant presence of a female figure. Another possible explanation is that what he does is some sort of a punishment, punishing other women for the crimes of his own mother.

However, what he has with Suga Mizuho seems different from other girls and no, this isn't a trope of a woman who's different than every other. On the contrary, our female protagonist isn't a special individual and the drama doesn't undervalue other women to show her distinction. Just like other students, she cannot resist Narumi but she yearns for him in other ways. She is not there for pleasure but Mizuho's main reason for not being able to stay away from such an individual is her wish to understand his pain and get closer to him by learning about his troubled past. Through Narumi, Mizuho also seeks to learn more about herself as Narumi is the only person that can make her act out of character causing her heart to waver.

At first, the show makes readers hopeful that it will follow the trope of a woman with an ability to change a man who falls in love with her and she changes his whole life, but that wouldn't be so real wouldn't it? But still , Mizuho has a much bigger impact on his life than we think. She replaces lust with careful physical touch, mostly spending time at his house to sleep next to him, eating warm meals with him or to keep him company so he doesn't feel lonely. Mizuho gives him a comfort of a friend rather than a lover and Narumi finds comfort in her gentle presence. She is not just a potential romantic partner but also a genuine friend.

A great way his slight change was portrayed in a contrast of his room which seemed dark and messy at first representing a turmoil in his mind, which later turns bright and clean during her presence when they cuddle on the floor in a deafening silence as he isn't alone anymore.

The series continues to give us hope in Narumi and his different view on Mizuho until one day, when he catches her looking at the tapes of his past. Mizuho's curiosity towards Narumi, coming from an urge to help him heal, brings an end to their growing relationship.

But the readers are made to misunderstand his reaction to Mizuho's discovery. First time watching, Narumi's reaction might seem toxic and terrifying but it actually comes from the fact that this image of a healthy and playful individual he portrayed is now smeared by truth of his past. Narumi doesn't hate Mizuho as he claims nor he would ever go that far to hurt her but he in fact, hates himself. Unable to bear the fact that she saw his vulnerable side he does what he does the best and pushes her away. What Narumi was saying were impulsive lies triggered by his inability to understand that the feelings Mizuho harbored towards him are not those of fear but pity she feels out of love towards him. As much as she couldn't read him, he also was unable to fully understand her feelings until the very last moment. I truly think that Mizuho holds a special part in Narumi's heart but he cannot reciprocate it like a healthy partner.

If you are watching this show, try to see it from a different perspective. It's main message might mean a lot more if you see it from a standpoint of growth. Mizuho, who is mostly calculative and cautious, a cold woman that doesn't open her heart to anyone and cares for no one grows to genuinely care about another person and finally gathers courage to confess her feelings to the one she loves despite her knowledge that he is not capable of love.

And our old Narumi wouldn't be as troubled as he was in the final scene but would say goodbye with a fake smile like he usually does. But this time, it was different. It is visible that her presence left something in him and at that moment he did not hide his tortured self in front of her as she held him tight in her arms.

At the end of the show, Narumi, who was always the one to walk away first now stood still while Mizuho turned away from him and we are left to guess what his gaze meant as it lingered on her walking away.

A fantastic execution of two troubled people leaving an important impact on each other that changed the trajectory of their life.

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