Mini Recaps
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Ep3] Fan Xiang Er is the wife of Cheng Feng Tai. They're rich and her family is quite the formidable force. Her and her husband are a normal couple: sometimes bicker, sometimes fight, sometimes flirty. That is until this episode the BL element settles in. Although Cheng Feng Tai is a normal husband who's good to his wife and seems like he loves her, that love is empty. Deep, deep down she's aware that her husband's feelings for her are different but she can't pinpoint what it is.
He's actually gay. Although this drama is advertised as non-BL it is based on a BL novel. So.
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Ep4] Shang Xi Rui is an interesting character. He's pout-ier that I'd thought he be. If this drama allows him and Cheng Feng Tai to be a couple he'd be the more feminine one. He's furious in this episode at his ex-Shi Jie. She lied to him about being his opera partner forever. But they made that promise when they were children. He feels betrayed, not jealous. How can he be jealous when he doesn't even love women? The only thing he loves, at the moment, is his opera, which is why he's ever so disappointed at his Shi Jie for leaving their opera troupe for a man, for love.
Shang Xi Rui and Cheng Feng Tai spend an interesting night together chatting away. CFT is a good listener. You kind of see their friendship grow here. It's cute, sort of. Meanwhile Fan Xiang Er is worried sick at home when her husband returns really late. She really does love him. Her sister-in-law teases her that he doesn't like Beiping women.
I just wanted to say to FXR, don't worry, he doesn't like women anyways but he is with Shang Xi Rui which might be even more worrisome.
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Ep6] This is the episode that really extrapolates Cheng Feng Tai's character. He's watching Shang Xi Rui's opera performance about Yang Consort. She chooses to die rather than let fate choose her path. The way SXR performs it speaks to him like no other performance has ever done. He sees his own life being portrayed by SXR. He envies Yang Consort for being able to choose her life, to choose death, over the easier path of letting fate choose. In his life, none of the choices were guided by his true desires. He left school because his father passed away. His family went bankrupt. Him and his sister had to marry people they don't love. He now understands why his mother chose to leave their family. His mom wanted to choose her own life, something that Cheng Feng Tai can't imagine doing.
It's this episode he truly fell in love with Shang Xi Rui. His performance, that is. Shang Xi Rui has uncanny ability to bring a character to life.
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Ep11] Two new updates: 1) Ritz and 2) Chen Ren Xiang. 1) Cheng Feng Tai purposely buys Ritz for Shang Xi Rui who looooves crackers.
I never knew Ritz looked like that. Shang Xi Rui accepts the addictive crackers but he's still upset at Cheng Feng Tai's wife for taking out her jealously on him. Fan Xiang Er is jealous, however, because the women in the troupe are harbouring mistress thoughts on her husband. What she doesn't know is that her husband has no interest in those women; he's only interested in Shang Xi Rui
's performances.
2) Chen Ren Xiang is the new rival in town for Shang Xi Rui.
I like this actor; he's Tan Jiang Ci. Although he's the antagonist, I like the humor he brings in with the rivalry.
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Ep34]
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Remarks
First Impression (Ep 1-6): Like I said, this really isn't my type of drama. The posters, the synopsis, the mood of the first episode all scream bo-ring for me. It was honestly a chore getting to episode three and then seeing Charmaine Sheh's scene piqued my interest and then I'm back to zoning out. I'm just not the type of person to start these grand, grand dramas from the get go of their releases. I like to bandwagon these ones because they're such heavy investments. I need people to tell me
yes this is worth my time. That's what happened with the The Story of Yan Xi Palace. I would never have watched that on my own accord. It's still not a drama I would love to watch again but I appreciate the masterful storytelling and the stellar characters the drama created. I think I'm supposed to expect the same thing here: learn to love something I never knew I would love. I'm still waiting for that part to happen.
At the moment, I am not invested Other than what I've mentioned above for episodes one to six, I honestly don't know what has happened for the rest of the other episodes. I zoned out too much. I also don't know where this story is trying to go, what the ultimate purpose is, or maybe there is none and we're just going with the flow of these three main character.
BL moments. There technically is none (at least not where I'm at). It's also not supposed to have any according to the notorious producer. At the moment Shang Xi Rui and Cheng Feng Tai are friends who truly understand each other. Of course anyone can extrapolate more to that if they truly wanted to which I think is a smart move to give that room for imagination. I for one am not a BL fan (see my
Untamed Review). I don't find it repulsive but I also don't ship men with men. I do find the relationship between the two men here interesting though.
My final first impression verdict is: I find this boring and I don't where it's going.
By Episode 14: This drama is advertised as not BL but all I see is BL. It’s not in your face I’m gay but it’s subtle in its delivery and they’re more like soulmates. And then there’s a sleuth of characters whose purpose is muddy. I’m expecting intricate relationships with all these characters but I don’t see it yet. Nice people just seem nice and bad people are obviously bad. So boring. Like I said before, I don’t where it’s going, I was waiting for the climax but at this point I’m wondering if I’ve missed the climax. I probably did. And I’ll probably miss the bandwagon for the rest of this. Bye Winter Begonia.
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