Notable Actors/Actresses
Chinese Title
The Her Today
Network: Tencent Video
Table of Contents:
Spoilers: I can't talk about this drama without being spoilery. You can skim and read the first line of every paragraph to avoid most spoilers. If that's still too much, at least skim the pictures! This drama is pretty and soothing to look at.
Cast
 |
 |
| Song Yi: Lu Zhen Zhen |
Zhang Chao: Chen Dong |
 |
 |
| Charmaine Sheh: Liang Qing Ran |
Wang Ren Jun: Liu Si Yuan |
 |
 |
| Li Chun: Gu Man Ting |
Li Jun Xian: Xu Hao |
 |
More Cast: Huang Hao Yue Hao Mei Li [Very Beautiful] Guo Cheng Wang Shuai Shuai [Wang Handsome] Wa Er [Secretary] |
| Zhang Guo Li: Gu Da Peng (Dad Gu) |
The Men
(Yeah, I know this is a female-centric drama.)
I love him → Zhang Chao's Chen Dong is a chef who plays guitar and lives in a van. He has his bangs 1mm too long so that his lethal eye-smiles don't kill our hearts. I was sold on him when he said this: "Your friend isn't someone simple. Even when she's sleeping, she's distracting my heart." (I like Song Yi when she's sleeping too – no nagging LOL.)
I feel for him! → Li Jun Xian's Xu Hao. He looks like he's on the verge of crying every time he sees Gu Man Ting post-Ep18. (His spice factory might be the secret to his tears!) Gu Man Ting is so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful people without doing anything in her life...... But I guess she really is a good person, attracting everyone good. I also don't think Xu Hao did much wrong. In that type of relationship, he's the rare good one.
I'm delighted by these hims → Qin Xin, and Secretary. Liang Qing Ran's professionalism is fatally charming (at least I think so, and well, so do the boys)
Secretary actor is Wa Er who is also Alibaba in White Cat Legend.
This him, he's just a bag of meat → Wang Ren Jun's Li Si Yuan.
The Women & Ro/Sis-mance
Charmaine Sheh's Liang Qing Ran has a fatal flaw: love. She's a little messed up, like an AI trying to find love to appear human. Liang Qing Ran commits a sin that I didn't think c-scriptwriters would dare write for a FL and then redeem her, but I like that there's remorse in the beginning, and then consistent to her character, she commits to the sin with no shame. She's beaten down for it, and then rebounds. In retrospect, I would like to thank her. If she didn't take out the trash, Lu Zhen Zhen was determined to marry that.
The theme of this drama, which I pleasantly enjoyed that it was played-down, is second chances. Liang Qing Ran got one. Two of the main men got one. The elevator guys deserved a second look. I can't speak for the English title, but this theme is implied in the Chinese: 今天的她們 The Her Today. Who you were yesterday doesn't dictate who you are today.
 |
| Liang Qing Ran covering the cat's' ears from all things horny |
 |
| The most emotional relationship for her was with the housekeeper, imo. She tamed Liang Qing Ran! She also made her spicy food after Liang Qing Ran grieved, and I interpreted that as the housekeeper wanting LQR to let out her suppressed emotions. |
Song Yi's Lu Zhen Zhen kind of loses the main FL spot as the drama progresses. I don't mind that at all because plot was distributed appropriately. Her romance with Chen Dong was subtle on her side. He was so in love, he'd like forget what he was saying and just watch her fix her hair. I was rooting for him, and did not care that she had a boyfriend who was still decent then.
I love the small continuity in their romance:
- Chen Dong talks about the heels that don't fit Lu Zhen Zhen in Ep6. They're from her boyfriend. Then in Ep9, she runs out without a pair of shoes, crying after being "abused" by her boyfriend. Chen Dong silently gives her his pair, the right pair.
- In Ep17, Chen Dong confesses his feelings (after a date with pandas), but she just broke up. He doesn't hug her fast enough, and she's gone. When she finds him again in Ep19, he catches her by surprise and immediately hugs her, finishing that hug.
- Their panda connection started in Ep1 (without her knowing). While he watched and fell in love with her sleeping face, he also saw her love for pandas through her phone. After her heart was broken, she was going to leave the city without seeing her pandas, but he changed her fate right then and there. ("More importantly, the pandas want to see you" – Chen Dong).
 |
| We cannot have a Chengdu drama without pandas! |
Li Chun's Gu Man Ting. I still can't get over how lucky she is from birth to...another birth. Her romance with Xu Hao made me the most emotional. I like that they don't follow the typical trajectory of a married couple with a housewife. My favourite scene from them is at the very end. Instead of serving the crib-master, Xu Hao asks Gu Man Ting, "Are you thirsty?" Awwwwww.
The three girls bond very late in the show. I like that there wasn't too much fanfare about their similarities: their parent (father) issues, following the same course of learning to love themselves first, and their emotional connections with food (e.g. 擔擔麵 dàn dàn miàn = Sichuan noodles with a spicy and numbing sauce).
I highly appreciate that the show isn't an ostentatious display of (feministic) morals. The girls are just navigating through their roadblocks.
The sismance though, wasn't too strong, but had fun moments especially when Liang Qing Ran broke her cool. It's neat too that Liang Qing Ran would only work with men in the beginning, and look at her now:
The Supporting Characters
Recommendations
| ML | Ladies | "Cheating" |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment