Because of Love

Tan Jing (Li Xiaoran) and Nie Yusheng (Wallace Chung) met in high school, got married in college but broke up soon afterwards. Seven years later, Jing is a down-on-her-luck college drop-out with a son, Sun Ping, who has congenital heart disease. Yusheng is a cardiac surgeon assigned to Ping's case.

Wallace Chung and Li Xiaoran had incredible chemistry in Too Late To Say I Love you. I'm glad to sense that chemistry again here. Their acting is top-notch. With his gaunt frame, disheveled hair and rumpled appearance, Nie Yusheng is a portrait of a tormented soul with just enough sanity to lead a decent life. Li Xioaran's portrayal of Tan Jing as a living corpse who just lives for her son is spot-on.

The writing and direction flow smoothly and give a good feel of the characters' mindsets, shifting from past to present (and maybe future?), as well as shifting from one perspective to another. This must be why it's heartbreaking just seeing Jing and Yusheng looking lifeless and melancholic, considering how passionate and blissful they used to be.

What could have driven a deeply-in-love couple to separate and turn into shadows of their former selves? Why do they hate each other so, yet can't let go? And what would it take for them to heal and regain their former vibrant selves?

The unique way in which first episodes was contradicted by last episodes. Story interesting, acting top class but disappointing but expected end. Ending is norm in k and c dramas. It sometimes kills the story but it is a cultural and/or social influence. Looking at differences in cultures, it is critical to seek to understand other perspectives.

Trying to redeem a character who shows little repentance or changes in behavior that support the apology is offensive. And being a parent does not grant you immediate absolution from your wrong, especially when you have harmed individuals, livelihoods and corrupted the social fabric. That's why I found last episode distasteful.

Compare to the other father who is framed by both sets of writers and the director as poor, drunk absent. Killed off as predicted by at least first appearance (poor men in these dramas like black men on Hollywood screens: Usual suspect who can't catch a break. Bad reputation and social pariah. This presents the idea that poor Men in China are ...... )

But according to the story he was hurt by the first father, killed by his right hand man who he knew was stealing and committing crimes. Loving a wife or children didn't absolve the Italian mob of their crimes, why rich parents in dramas getting redeemed and their is no proof in stories of genuine repentance?

Man lost his livelihood because of adopted son's grandfather. Gave a child his name and worked like a dog to provide money for expensive medical bills just with odd jobs. Then killed with a five second funeral retrieving information that got this grandfather off the hook. Who is your fool? No one mentioned his burden or pain. He was scorned and despised then forgotten. That's the social and cultural influences that exalts one human above another. Just think. How will a real grandchild process all this info? Including abandoned uncle who grandfather never acknowledges or invested his own money in.

Hard or soft, the reputation created by script of adopted father and implied about uncle by main characters is repulsive and stains the story. Anticlimactic action or writing is very tiresome and the change in tempo of the final episodes depicts a struggle within content creators. That is the disappointment :10 stars for first 20 episodes but 3 for the final five. When an outstanding actor is shamed not by his failure to live up to expectations but by bad scripts, direction and editing, you know it is tragic. After all, there are Chinese actors in abundance who make bad scripts look good. Koreans too. Yup, mek it look eezee.

But media directs social thought on a subconscious level. Racist ideas internalized by black people was the reason for Bob Marley's Redemption Song. To uproot and tear down harmful ideas.

When truth and honesty are sacrificed for familial preservation we harm our communities, homes and societies. See white people struggle on tik tok. We are all human. Just the divisive rhetoric which surrounds these four words alone illuminates clearly how divide and rule would always be a superior social, economic and political weapon. In this drama class and beauty seperates and attributes worth. But why must all be rich or aspire to be rich? When the female lead justifies her son's future with this polluted discourse and the male lead puts his balls in his pants pocket for the latter stage of the story, it begs the question: why must you dismantle the integrity of a story to honour the dishonorable? That's why I would watch Love O2O, Falling into your smile, The King's Avatar which all highlight and resolve generational conflict without characters having to sacrifice themselves to please an unreasonable elder.

I love elders. I have always sought mentorship from wise elders. I love my mother and grandmother. I can ignore. But do I need to pretend they are right when then are wrong? Would I just proclaim them wrong when they right? Are you wondering what's wrong or right? Do you question good and evil? Be careful. Modern philosophy can justify anything with the most fallacious arguments. Both brilliance and mediocrity are displayed via media. But do we always have the skills to discern the difference? This drama began in a class all by itself and ended at Wembley in a crowd so thick, that it diminished its unique features. So, like DNA, uniqueness was its primary distinction but sameness became its downfall. Artistic talent was in the forefront at the top, the lies we tell ourselves was exposed at the end. How subtracting race still leaves a class bias that misrepresents the facts about the real lives of the majority of China's population clearly demonstrates why the discussion around equality is yielding so little results worldwide. Evenmore, sacrificing masculinity at the altar of feminism will swell pockets of the rich but ultimately lead to social harm. If women can't gain equality without ridiculing men, how will we avoid toxic femininity? It worse than covid on TV. Can we pull it back?