The Cage of Love can be such an off-putting name. It screams possessiveness. So if you really despise possessiveness, you might not want to watch this drama. But I like to mention the drama's really not bad at all. I quite adore it actually. Can’t they have used something similar to its Chinese title, 抓住彩虹的男人,
which directly translates to ‘The Man that Held onto Rainbow’. And rainbow in
Chinese is pronounced as Cai Hong. Ding Dong Ding. The man that held onto
Rainbow is none other then Jiang Yu. And that’s exactly what Jiang Yu does
(unconsciously) for these two episodes.
As I post this, I’ve already watched Episode 5 and I think I
might just be hooked onto this show. Jiang Yu’s pretty cute with his petty jealously
and Cai Hong is oh so smart. (:
♦ ♦ ♦ Episode 3 ♦ ♦ ♦
Wu Hong Da is dead. No matter how shocked and miserable Cai
Hong is, there isn’t time for her to dwell in her despair; since witnessing her father's death, she hasn’t let out a
single tear. The well-being of the Wu
family and Ling Long is now in her hands. Meanwhile, Jiang Yu is oblivious to
the death of Wu Hong Da. All we know is that he seemed to have received
something from him after his visit. Is it the holy secret dye formula?
Similar to Jiang Yu’s fate, Cai Hong’s family gets
kicked out of their house mansion because of debt collectors. Shao Tian
musters up all the connections and money he has to find them a decent place.
Cai Hong’s stepmom isn’t the bit pleased with the ‘filthy’ place. Shao Tian actually likes her? He
even helps them clean up their new home. Cai Hong is embarrassed by her
Stepmom’s attitude but is grateful for Shao Tian’s help. Both the sisters offer
to help with the cleanup but Stepmom doesn’t let her own daughter help. Ah, the usual stepmom but she's not too bad yet.
Since Cai Hong was mourning for her father's death, she missed her
appointment with Jiang Yu. I
guess her cat will be fish food. Jiang Yu, however, waits until past
dinner time (they were supposed to meet at 3pm) for her appearance. Sulkily, he
returns home. He yearned to see her not only because he unconsciously grew fond
of her but meeting Wu Hong Da was so emotionally draining he needed to see her.
Jiang Yu complains to the cat but gets indirectly comforted by Fei Fei
reminding him a missed appointment can be due to unexpected circumstances. No, really? Although, there really isn’t anyone supporting Fei Fei in winning over
Jiang Yu (audience wise), it does seem like Jiang Yu’s family (i.e. maid and
Mom) is rather supportive of it.
When Jiang Yu and Fei Fei come to learn of Wu Hong Da’s
death, they hate it. They didn’t want him dead because they wanted him to
suffer. At least that means Jiang Yu didn’t kill Cai Hong’s father.
Meanwhile, at Cai Hong’s side, Ling Long is bankrupt.
Initially, Cai Hong was resolute against selling her Dad’s hard-earned business
but there’s no other choice, as outlined by Shao Tian.
And can you believe it, Jiang Yu is still waiting for Cai
Hong at the meeting place the next day. Lucky for him, being the star crossed
lover of Cai Hong, they meet at the factory that belonged to each of their
fathers at one or the other point in time; remember the factory once belonged to Jiang Yu’s
father’s but later became Wu Hong Da’s. Both of them were reminiscing about
their fathers as they stare at their factory.
So, they not only share
similar mother trauma, but also father trauma.
Jiang Yu’s mood takes a complete swing upward as he spots Cai
Hong. What are you going to
do when she turns out to be the daughter of the man you hate most? He
shouts for her attention because he doesn’t know her name. He jokingly threatens her that her cat is already
fish food. And the girl actually cries. Completely taken back, he reassures her
it’s a joke. He also takes this chance to ask for her name. I demand that he needs to go
through hills and valleys to find out her name too! However, who told
him to get the girl mad first because now she completely doesn’t want to reveal
her name. He settles for another chance to meet and this time to ensure that
they don’t miss each other, he writes down his number on her palm.
As for Ling Long, there are interested investors. One being
Lu Man because she wants that oh-so-special secret formula. However, Cai Hong
is completely unaware of its existence. The other investor interested in buying
Ling Long is Jiang Yu. And
OMG that’s how they finally meet as star crossed lovers haters! But it
was so lackluster. Anyways, they meet. Jiang Yu’s a conniving business man
as he threatened other businesses to not butt in on the deal thus making him
the sole buyer (what happened to Lu Man? Or is she only obsessed with the secret formula?) His offer is even worse: if the deal is made today he’ll pay
50% of Ling Long’s offered price; if not, each subsequent day he’ll pay 10%
less.
It seems this era is pretty high-tech as they got forensics
done on Wu Hong Da’s cause of death and it was discovered that the likelihood
of murder is higher than suicide. And so murder it is. According to eye
witnesses, Jiang Yu was seen that day with her father. Thus he has become the
primary suspect. Therefore, Cai Hong sets her revenge target as Jiang Yu
because there is no other logical explanations. A very logical flow, no?
However, however. Jiang Yu has an alibi and it’s not just
any alibi, it’s the head of chief of the police department. This rather strong
alibi, however, only makes Cai Hong obstinate that Jiang Yu is the one and only
criminal because he even had to use bribery.
Set on her revenge plan, she makes a call to Jiang Yu to
meet up for their business deal. Not as equipped with business know-hows, she’s
forced to settle for 10% of the price she offered before but she’s got one
condition: Jiang Yu is to hire her. She threatens him that if he refuses this
condition, she’ll spread rumors to the press that he is the murderer of her
father (revealing all the evidences against him). And yes, this is her revenge
plan: to work for him.
♦ ♦ ♦ Episode 4 ♦ ♦ ♦
Alright, so her revenge plan is a little more elaborate than
that. She’s working for him in order to find evidence of his crime. Yeah,
that’s it. She works as his secretary
because that totally existed back then. He even sets out guidelines for her to
memorize and fulfill:
- Boss will only say his words once; as the secretary, she must remember everything.
- During office hours, she is not to leave Boss’s side at any time.
- However, as a secretary, she is to be available twenty-four hours every day, ready to be at service anytime.
- Boss’s decision, no matter right or wrong, must be carried out.
- Boss’s need must be met with no right to refuse.
- If the secretary fails to do any of the above, Boss has the right to immediately dismiss her.
Possessive.
Possessive. Possessive. But all these rules spell a-boy-desperately-in-love.
He certainly abuses Rule #2. Other than that, he’s a meanie towards her. In front of everyone he orders
her to get tea for him a total of three times because none were at the optimal
temperature. In the end he just splashes her in the face with the water. At least the third time, the water
was cool?
Although Jiang Yu abuses Rule #2, Cai Hong uses it to her
advantage. She tags him like a dog, enough that he goes to the washroom to
avoid her. To our humor, she daringly follows him right in. Betting on him
being embarrassed, she stands guard right in front of the stall. Not one to
chicken out, he pees in her presence with the door wide open. I like that the show has humor. She
flees. Jiang Yu snickers but he suddenly realizes that his washroom door is
still wide opened. Cute.
Fei Fei is suspicious of Cai Hong working for them and
alerts Jiang Yu. However, it’s not that Jiang Yu doesn’t know, he’s fully aware
of it, it’s just some unidentified magnetic field is attracting him to her. But
he can’t forget that hate he has towards her father so he makes her shine his
shoes in front of all the factory workers (whom all of which had worked for Wu Hong
Da). She does so obediently. Shao Tian is infuriated at this scene; he goes to
take her place but this makes Jiang Yu even more adamant on wanting her to
shine his shoes, this time with her bare hands. Shao Tian is about to deliver a
fist to Jiang Yu's obnoxious face but is stopped by Cai Hong. Our Jiang Yu though, gets a little peeved seeing just this much physical interaction
Cai Hong initiates on Shao Tian.
The day’s not yet over. Jiang Yu and Fei Fei are going to
meet a client and Cai Hong needs to be at the rendezvous point on her own in
less than fifteen minutes because the carriage can’t carry the third person.
With Shao Tian’s killer bike riding skills she arrives in the nick of time and
makes a hasty appearance in front of Jiang Yu’s big client. Lucky for her, the
client is an old friend of her father’s and with her logical words and unending
praise of Jiang Yu’s ability, she’s got him his big client who originally
wasn’t so keen on working with anyone but Wu Hong Da. Jiang is impressed.
After a successful deal, they send out their client with
both of them saying the same thing at the same time: “Rest assure (our
collaboration will be successful).” Suddenly, Fei Fei feels like the third
wheel. Knowing her place, she
sends off their big client leaving Jiang Yu and Cai Hong alone. Jiang Yu isn’t
direct about his compliment towards Cai Hong for her usefulness but a
compliment is a compliment. She proudly proclaims that of course she’s great,
she’s Wu Hong Da’s daughter. And whoopsie daisies, she slips.
With his quick reflexes he does the save that every show
gotta have. Both of them are clearly frozen in time as they stare into each
other’s eyes. Jiang Yu snaps out of it first and immediately retracts his hand, but
still is reflexes are quick enough to grasp onto her wrist.
 |
| The angle of this looks like she's going to punch him in the face |
With one swing of his, she’s back up on her feet. The fall was funnier than I
expected. Actually, I didn’t expect any humor, but it make me like this overused scene more. Jiang Yu
warns her, “It’s easy to slip (and die), daughter of Wu Hong Da.” Deep breaths
girl, deep breaths.
Shao Tian walks her back to the factory but he doesn’t
understand why she’s helping Jiang Yu. For Cai Hong, it’s not for Jiang Yu but
for Ling Long. Despite it now belonging to Jiang Yu, at its core, she still
believes Ling Long belongs to her father. Not only that, she’s also doing
this for the workers. During their walk home, Shao Tian asks for the process of
her secret investigation and directs her away from the accounting books (which
would have evidence of his embezzlement) to Jiang Yu’s possible motive. Gr.
Although the deal with their big client was smoothly
confirmed, the manufacturing has halted because someone from the factory had
sabotaged the dye. When Jiang Yu goes to his office, a suspicious looking Cai
Hong is dusting her room. She was actually searching his room for evidence but was fruitless. She comments to him that these past few days, the wind has been particularly strong and the dust have gathered up in his office. Completely unconvinced, Jiang Yu updates her on the fouled dye and the culprit must be a
factory worker, you know unless the wind was strong enough to gather dust and pollute their dye. Lol. Jiang
Yu assigns Cai Hong the responsibility in finding the culprit otherwise she’ll have to resign.
Meanwhile Jiang Yu and Fei Fei are in search of new
ingredients (being roses) for the dye colour they need and only this Old Lady
Jiang has them. However, Jiang Yu’s poor attitude that money can do anything,
such as buy her useless flowers that no one looks at, leaves her evermore
stubborn on not letting him have them. But there’s a special reason why she
grows them: it’s to reminisce her deceased daughter. Therefore Jiang Yu’s
chances of obtaining her roses are next to none.
Back at the factory, Cai Hong fails to catch the culprit or
more like she doesn’t try; she doesn't want to be suspicious of her workers and call them out for it. Before she resigns though, she wants to make one
last speech to the workers: it’s about how she loves Ling Long no matter who
the owner is. Her speech touches the culprit enough to make him
admit to his wrongdoings. And
Jiang Yu is probably falling harder for her. Grandpa Fu committed the
crime for his devotion towards Ling Long and Wu Hong Da. He strongly believes
Jiang Yu is responsible for his master’s death. While Jiang Yu can care less
about his reason and demands him to pay twice the amount of their losses. I swear I mentioned he was
righteous back in Episode 1…
Knowing the poor man doesn’t have that ability to pay twice
fold, Cai Hong begs Jiang Yu go easy on Grandpa Fu. With nothing to wager,
she gets down on her knees and begs. Now both father and daughter have kneeled to Jiang Yu, huh. However,
Jiang Yu is firm on his decision.
Cai Hong continues to kneel. Shao Tian’s heart aches for her
and proceeds to threatens Jiang Yu that if he doesn’t grant Cai Hong’s wish,
he’ll leave Ling Long with all the workers. Jiang Yu isn’t fazed because he’s
certain Shao Tian doesn’t have that ability. Eventually Cai Hong faints on the
spot and Jiang Yu tells Shao Tian to remove this eyesore. Shao Tian does so furiously. However, Jiang Yu’s guise breaks a little as he looks back at her leaving in the arms of
another man.
♦ ♦ ♦ Comments ♦ ♦ ♦
I usually don’t bother finding out too much about the drama
before it airs so I was thoroughly surprised that Shao Tian actually loves Cai
Hong. His love towards her is so pure and sincere. I’m not the one to have second
lead syndrome but his devotion to her is nice to watch. Why did she have to be
born from a man both the boys hate to death? I do like Shao Tian for now but his
constant presence around Cai Hong makes me worry for her; she's in the light while he's in the dark. Shao Tian being near Cai Hong is really the same as her keeping close to Jiang Yu (without the added fervent emotion, yet!). Both want evidence
but ones wants to expose them while the other wants to hide his from the world.
The plot is nicely paced and engaging. The dialogues are
thoughtful too. I like how everyone is smart in this drama, there’s no dumb
character, although the revenge plan is lame. At least it does what it intends
to do: puts Cai Hong right in Jiang Yu’s vicinity at all times. No need for
fated coincidences, which I find even lamer.
This drama reminds me of Cuo Dian Yuan Yang; they’re really
quite similar especially with the revenge backdrop. The girl is similarly smart
and cute while the guys are both ambitious and cold. Jiang Yu’s coldness has a
bit more humor to it though. I was actually quite surprised this drama made me genuinely laugh and not that awkward kind of laugh. I was expecting a heavier
melodrama. The lightness in this makes me really like this drama.
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