Notable Actors/Actresses
我的人間煙火
Yang Yang: Song Yan |
Wang Chu Ran: Xu Qin |
Wang Yan Lin: Jiang Yu |
Wei Da Xun: Meng Yan Chen |
Zhang Bin Bin: Suo Jun |
Yang Chao Yue: Zhai Miao |
Yi Da Qian: Zhan Da Peng |
Zhang Yue: Li Meng |
Romcom/Romance Checklist
0 / 1 / 2 / 3+
Remarks
Like a moth attracted to the flame... |
Review
- I started this optimistically for eye candy and a deep romance. I can confidently say I got eye-candy.
- The review is way too long for much I truly cared about this. It's a show where I liked its parts, but not its whole.
- A highlight in this drama: boiling water.
But.
It was unevenly slow and the peak lasted too short. So many episodes add nothing to the main relationship. I thought my patience would be rewarded with lotsa fireworks. Well. I got about one. Pew. And it was over.
Boiling water lasts longer than that peak.
What I didn’t like about Xu Qin is how little there was about Xu Qin. After that explosive drunk confession in Ep10, it’s followed by radioactive silence on her perspective. In her confession, she recounted how she silently fought for herself step by step. I admired that. But Show barely showed any more progression. I really don’t understand this. How do you introduce a problematic FL, not deep-dive into why she’s dysfunctional, and expect the general audience to cheer for her and her romance. I want to defend her, but you’re giving me so little to work with.
Overall Plot: I did not appreciate
The story lacked a real cohesion to its many parts: the main romance, the family story, ML’s firefighting team, and FL’s medical career. I don’t like that drama introduced a lot of plot but didn't follow through extensively (like the entire firefighting team) or resolved satisfyingly (like the dysfunctional family).
On one hand, I enjoyed the firefighter boys' high and impactful moments (shout out to Jiang Yu, Jiang Yi, and Da Peng). But they are literally moments. Spotted. I think I would love this more if it flowed better with the rest of the story. The emotional moments land as fast as they go.
I think if drama ended better, the tone of my review wouldn't be so bitter. This dysfunctional family resolution at the end –– Spoiler Alert! –– focused on having Mother Dearest appreciating firefighting, and therefore accepting the ML. But. Why? Why does the mother's approval even matter? After all that she did to our ML and FL, the last message the drama wants to send is that the mother approves of his firefighting career? And because she approves, she can be back in FL and ML's life, happily ever after? This resolution is so far removed from the heart of the problem and addresses nothing the FL or ML have suffered because of her. 九唔搭八. Irrelevant. I rather they just ignore the mother's story in the end.
P.S. Poor Meng Yan Chen who was miserable his entire life, and was so messed up that he’d passively accepted rape charges. Apparently, to solve his sister's problem, he just needed to set his mother on fire (and then have ML ready to charge in).
- Very little of the criticisms were constructive to the drama and its plot. I'm not saying they were invalid criticisms. The ones that trended were low-hanging fruits, bordering the show, rather than targeting the heart of the story.
- Why there weren't constructive criticisms is because Show simply isn't that great. It is not high quality storytelling, and it even loses out on being entertaining. A lot of casual viewers were just not checking in to discuss real plot.
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