Underrated : a classic plotline including a refreshing level of emotional complexity
This is pretty much my first positive review of a romance-in-college c-drama, as I would usually rate those with a 7 or lower.
There's absolutely nothing interesting about the plot or the side characters. (Just like in almost every other similar c-drama out there).
The surprise of this c-drama rests entirely on the impressive range of emotions displayed by both leads and specifically by the ML, who originally plays a cold and smart "typical" c-drama ML.
The ML is only cold for about 4 episodes. Very far from the stoic face and arrogant demeanor of most emotionally impaired ML, he actually shows an impressive range of facial expressions and various shifts in moods. To the core, he's only scared and resentlful , and his defense mechanisms get in the way of honest communication but he is very aware of the issue and actually tries to solve it. I truly enjoyed the way the ML's internal struggle with his own feelings was depicted.
For both leads, scars from childhood play a role in their current behavior, which is a common plot line in many dramas (and in real life), but I found it subtly handled for once. The ML wasn't beaten to near death but experienced insecure attachement to a parent. The tension between parent and children is well articulated, the mother wasn't a horrible person and neither was the son, but scars remained and I liked that the ML was able to articulate his hurting.
Like a real human, he was sad, anxious, uncertain, joyful, coy , flirty, sulky and everything in between. But he struggled with means of expression.
This was a fairly well executed exemple of struggles between an avoidant attachment type of person (ML) and their partner.
The FL tries her best to understand him but gets confused and angry at the contradictory signals and all the pushing away, and rightfully so. She was patient but not in an overly naive way and was smart enough to also articulate some of that. Ultimately, each had understandable reasons to resent one another at times, and I'm fairly impressed that, for once, the misunderstandings weren't completely illogical.
There are still some parts of the plot that felt very forced for purposes of narration, the ML did play the super hero saving the damsel in distress a few unnecessary times. The other characters did not interest me at all, the university setting was almost irrelevant.
Ultimately, this drama doesn't get a lot of things right but doesn't get it wrong either and nails it on the emotional complexity (compared to other c-dramas of the same genre). For this reason, I would truly recommend to give it a go without expecting any anything.
There's absolutely nothing interesting about the plot or the side characters. (Just like in almost every other similar c-drama out there).
The surprise of this c-drama rests entirely on the impressive range of emotions displayed by both leads and specifically by the ML, who originally plays a cold and smart "typical" c-drama ML.
The ML is only cold for about 4 episodes. Very far from the stoic face and arrogant demeanor of most emotionally impaired ML, he actually shows an impressive range of facial expressions and various shifts in moods. To the core, he's only scared and resentlful , and his defense mechanisms get in the way of honest communication but he is very aware of the issue and actually tries to solve it. I truly enjoyed the way the ML's internal struggle with his own feelings was depicted.
For both leads, scars from childhood play a role in their current behavior, which is a common plot line in many dramas (and in real life), but I found it subtly handled for once. The ML wasn't beaten to near death but experienced insecure attachement to a parent. The tension between parent and children is well articulated, the mother wasn't a horrible person and neither was the son, but scars remained and I liked that the ML was able to articulate his hurting.
Like a real human, he was sad, anxious, uncertain, joyful, coy , flirty, sulky and everything in between. But he struggled with means of expression.
This was a fairly well executed exemple of struggles between an avoidant attachment type of person (ML) and their partner.
The FL tries her best to understand him but gets confused and angry at the contradictory signals and all the pushing away, and rightfully so. She was patient but not in an overly naive way and was smart enough to also articulate some of that. Ultimately, each had understandable reasons to resent one another at times, and I'm fairly impressed that, for once, the misunderstandings weren't completely illogical.
There are still some parts of the plot that felt very forced for purposes of narration, the ML did play the super hero saving the damsel in distress a few unnecessary times. The other characters did not interest me at all, the university setting was almost irrelevant.
Ultimately, this drama doesn't get a lot of things right but doesn't get it wrong either and nails it on the emotional complexity (compared to other c-dramas of the same genre). For this reason, I would truly recommend to give it a go without expecting any anything.
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