There Was Nothing Lovely Here

In reading the synopsis for this drama, I had high expectations because it sounded so interesting. But I have to say that I was less than thrilled with this drama.

Han Zhen Zhen (mother), Zhuang Jun Jie (father) and Zhuang Ying Wen (daughter) all move as a family to a new home and community for a fresh start due to not only financial issues but for their daughter being bullied at school as well as being sexually assaulted.

In the first couple of episodes the parents completely ignored their daughter who was still struggling with not remembering what happened to her during her time at school. She is on medication and just runs every evening. My mind could not fathom why her parents didn't step in and question her more often on how she was getting along, how she was feeling, they pretty much left her on her own. She did meet one young man in the community, Fan Yan Zhi who was suffering with his own demons. His parents had such high hopes for him that left him putting on a facade everyday with them and everyone else. The only person who saw who he really was, was Zhuang Ying Wen.

The whole basis of this drama was how two young individuals struggled with things they have done and the domino effect and impact that it had on the lives of those they loved.

To see Fan Yan on the rooftop and confess to Zhuang Ying he was the one that had sexually assaulted her was an eye opener. But to add further to this confession was the fact that his mother was on the rooftop as well and heard. Fan's mother tried to convince him that she was to blame for all the hardships he had to endure by not listening to him. He was undeterred by her sentiments and jump off the roof. But his mother still managed to hold onto his hand and would not let go until he convinced her to let him finally make one decision for himself. She did. Releasing his hand from hers, she watched him fall to the ground.

The other eye-opening moment was to find out that Zhuang Ying was not the person who was bullied but the one who did the bullying. All these emotional build ups led her to shut down and cut off all her memories because of what she herself had done to her best friend as well as being sexually assaulted.

These two pieces were the catalyst that drove this drama. If they would have focused on these moments and expanded more in depth, this would have been much more interesting to me.

Even the last episode they tried to clean everything up by jumping one year and bringing closure where I still felt it was just thrown together to give us an ending all neatly tied together but it was not, it, to me was rushed.

In my opinion this did not need to be a nine-episode drama. The last two episodes were the most poignant pieces which would have made for a much better movie than dragging it out into nine episodes.

Read More

Till Death Do Us Part

This drama caught me by surprise. The twist and turns of how everything unfolds is interesting to say the least. It holds your attention and makes you think did Ran Shu need to go as far as she did with escaping her marriage. Was the ending what she expected.

When we first meet Ran Shu (Lu Yan Qi) she is in the bathroom cutting her hair, hiding a facial bruise that she has received once again from her husband. As she is staring at her reflection, she begins to think about the reoccurring dream that she is having more frequently. It is about her and her husband Zhang Zeyi (Chu Peng Xu), a glamorous photographer who she realizes is totally different in the dream than in reality.

In reality he is a violent, gloomy, cruel, horrific and an abusive husband. Ran Shu is feeling that this dream is starting to become real. In the dream, Zhang Zeyi wants them both to die on his 30th birthday by preparing a poisonous rose for her. The purpose for this is he wants to freeze love with death so that it will never wither. To complete this final photo, he grabs the poisonous flower as well and dies along with her, this is his last photograph--Ran Shu and Zhang Zeyi dying together side by side. Death will witness their eternal love.

This dream sets the stage for why Ran Shu decides to fight back against the life she was living.

You see Ran Shu grew up in an orphanage with her sister Gu Ru Ye (Wang Xing Chen). There was no love lost between these two sisters due to what Gu Ru Ye had done to her in the orphanage. Ran Shu was originally going to be adopted by a rich woman. Gu Ru Ye was bitter that her sister was going to leave her after she swore, they would be together forever. She disabled her sister and locked her up the day the rich woman came hence Gu Rue Ye was chosen. Leaving Ran Shu alone in the orphanage until she was of age to leave.

Meanwhile, Gu Ru Ye had become a big celebrity. You would think she was happy, but she still wanted to wreck and disassemble the life of Ran Shu. And that meant, taking her husband Zhang Zeyi whom she eventually seduces.

To escape this premonition of impending death, Ran Shu started a counterattack by enlisting the help of the famous writer Gu Yi Bai (Jin Jia Yu) by having an interview with him to discuss his upcoming book. During their first interview at Gu Yi Bai's house Ran Shu ask him if Gu Ru Ye, the famous movie star was his sister. He says she is. This is Ran Shu's sister unbeknownst to Gu Yi Bai.

She continues her plan by allowing Gu Ru Ye to seduce Zhang Zeyi, using Gu Yi Bai by showing faded bruises, leaving her purse in his car so that he had to return it and see the domestic abuse firsthand by her husband. Yes, her plan went along swimmingly. So, much so until Zhang Zeyi got the divorce he wanted, and Gu Ru Ye married him.

Ran Su was excited and finally happy to live her life. But we still had the impending 30th birthday of Zhang Zeyi at the exhibit. Now, that Ran Su was no longer his wife this was not going to stop him fulfilling his last photo. The stage was set just as Ran Su had envisioned in her dream. She came and confessed everything to Zhang Zeyi as Gu Ru Ye was already dead. She told him that the letter that he had in his pocket was not from Gu Ru Ye but from her. Zhang Zeyi begins to realize that Ran Su set everything up.

We also have Gu Yi Bai who on the eve of the exhibit sees a lady janitor with a box of letters which contained all the letters to Zhang Zeyi from Gu Ru Ye. He begins to investigate what this is all about. Meetings, interviews, domestic violence were these all lies? He begins to question if everything was indeed a lie by Ran Su.

Ran Su would not have done what she did to Gu Ru Ye if she would not have been constantly pressuring her along with the abusive treatment from Zhang Zeyi. She began stalking her sisters, so she already knew that Gu Yi Bai was her brother. She deliberately shook hands with Gu Yi Bai when Zhang Zeyi arrived at their interview to create tension. She placed the love letter written by her in Gu Ru Ye’s style into the coat pocket of Zhang Zeyi. Infidelity, affair. She dragged them all down into the abyss she created.

Just as she thought everything was going her way, Gu Yi Bai was not done. He knew what Ran Su had done and he began his own investigation. He found out that Ran Su was Gu Ru Ye's sister and was actually supposed to be adopted but his mother. But due to being injured she was not adopted. Looking back, each time they met, he was cooperating with her. Whether it was intentionally letting Zhang Zeyi misunderstand them, deliberately leaving her purse in his car, leaving her shoes out so that he could find her or the letter that she deliberately left. He began to contemplate and wonder if he had not met her that day, how would the outcome be. At last, he finally came to the conclusion that she set everything up.

He meets Ran Su and tells her the ending of his new book, “Everyone is a villain. Controlling people in the name of love. Severing the new life with dreams.” Ran Su stares at Gu Yi Bai and knows he knows what she did. But he tells her that is not the ending he is giving her. He tells her to turn herself in to the police.

Gu Yi Bai does meet with Zhang Zeyi who is in prison. He asked Gu Yi Bai what else does he want to know because he does not feel that he has done anything wrong. The reason why is that he felt his marriage with Ran Su was perfect. The domestic violence and abuse he saw it as him being protective. At a young age, Zhang Zeyi saw his father murder his mother. He was having an affair with another woman and told him that he would always take care of him as he left him to go to the other woman. Leaving Zhang Zeyi to call the police and stay with his dead mother. This led to him never knowing if he was really loved by anyone. He thought Ran Su was the woman that truly loved him even though he married Gu Ru Ye. He just wanted eternal love. If only her heart wouldn’t have changed.

Zhang Zeyi got 20 years in prison. Ran Su turned herself in accompanied by Gu Yi Bai.

So much went on in this drama but there is no romance at all and if that what you are expecting, think again. This is totally based off a woman trying to get out of a marriage as well as serve her sister for being cruel to her and giving them both what she felt they deserved.

As Gu Yi Bai said in the end of his book, "Everyone is a villain." The End!

Read More

A Friend Until the End

Wow! Talk about crazy. This is actually a drama that you can binge watch. You probably will want to with all the craziness that goes on. Hang on!

It starts out with Duan Ruo Nan doing a video proposing to her boyfriend Li Xiao. In the middle of the video, she gets a call from Fan Xiao Wei saying she is going to kill herself. Duan Ruo Nan then calls Li Xiao and they both go to Fan Xiao Wei's apartment and find her in the bathtub with her wrist slit. They take her to the hospital.

But Duan Ruo Nan finds out from Fan Xiao Wei's the reason why she slit her wrist and it is because her ex-boyfriend was getting married, and so Duan Ruo Nan decides to interrupt the proceedings. Now, Fan Xiao Wei did not ask her to do this, she did this of her own volition. Duo Ruan causes quite the scene at the wedding wielding a baseball bat. The girl he was going to marry breaks up with him. And so, begins the craziness.

Fan Xiao Wei's ex post pictures (because of what DRN did at his wedding) of her on the internet and that puts her in a downward spiral. Duan Ruo feels guilty about what she did to her ex but also, she feels sorry that she tries to kill herself over the situation, so she tells her to stay with her and Li Xiao place for a "few days."

Fan Xiao Wei does seductive stuff to gets Li Xiao's attention, but he is doing pretty good ignoring her, but he eventually caves in. Fan Xiao Wei does a pretty good job of always being "the victim" and appearing helpless and that is why everyone is always on her side.

Duan Ruo Nan tells Fan Xiao Wei that she is going to propose to Li Xiao when they go to the lake. But Fan tells Li Xiao about this. As Duan Ruo is pulling out the rings and goes to put Li Xiao's ring on his finger he jerks back, and the ring goes into the water. He apologizes but Duan Ruo is upset.

Duan Ruo does not understand why he rejected her because they have been together 4 years. (It also doesn't help that Duan Ruo's mother keeps calling her asking when she is getting married.) So, Duan Ruo and Fan go for drinks. She thinks if she shows that other men will want her that Li Xiao will accept the proposal. Duan Ruo gets drunk and Fan calls Li Xiao who comes to get them both. Duan Ruo throws up on Fan and when they get home she has to change. Li Xiao puts Duan Ruo into bed and hears Fan cry out in the bathroom. He asks her if she is alright and says she hurt her ankle. He tells her he is coming in and see her on the bathroom floor with just a towel wrapped around her. He helps her up only to have Fan's towel fall down. (Like we didn't know that was going to happen). Duan Ruo wakes up and starts calling for Li Xiao. They are both in the bathroom and so Fan tells her he went to get something to sober her up. They got out of that.

As Duan Ruo and Li Xiao both head to work they leave Fan there. She calls Li Xiao and tells him she is sick. Unbeknownst to Fan that Duan Ruo has to come back to pick up documents, she had called Li Xiao to tell him that she was sick and needed medicine. He jumps at the opportunity. Enter Duan Ruo who comes to get those documents she left and asks Fan why she just has a nightie on, she tells her she is sick. Then low and behold here comes Li Xiao in. Duan Ruo asks him why he is there, and he says he is sick. So, Duan Ruo stays home to take care of them both. No action there...oh, well!

Then there is the necklace. Duan Ruo finds the necklace that she believes is for her but really Li Xiao bought it for Fan. Now, Duan Ruo is still clueless and still trying to propose to Li Xiao. They go to dinner only to have him tell her he has to go meet a client. But Fan had text him and told him that she was moving out. Of course, giving him the address. He leaves the restaurant only to have Duan Ruo following him to the hotel.

She catches them together and sees the necklace that she believes was hers around Fan's neck. Duan Ruo goes to pack to leave. (She has her own place because I was wondering why she was leaving giving them her place.) They argue and Li Xiao just tells her he never wanted to marry her, and she is suffocating him with wanting to get married. He fell in love with Fan at first sight. Duan Ruo is visibly upset and rightly so because here are two people she trusted, and they now dissed her.

It is funny how Fan bounced back like two days after her man left her, but you will know why. Li Xiao thought he had the perfect girl. Only to find out that Fan was clingy, obsessive, paranoid and a psychopath. She called and text him at work nonstop. He took 7 days off just to be with her. That still wasn't enough. She put an app on his phone, so she knew where he was and was getting all of his text messages because she felt he was still seeing Duan Ruo. Which he really wasn't but he realized he made a mistake in choosing Fan because of the behavior she was showing him once they got together. That is probably why her ex left her as well.

Duan Ruo on the other hand did so well at her job because of her performance, she was sent to another branch. This is where she meets the man she will eventually end up with Wu Ze. Her job is going well and of course there is always one that doesn't like you and that is Beija. She doesn't like Duan Ruo from day one and doesn't make her life easy.

Finally, Li Xiao can't take Fan anymore and breaks up with her. She agrees to him breaking up with her if he gives her 300,000 yuan because her father is in the hospital. He tells her he can't give her all of that but some and he wants her gone. She says she doesn't know where to get the rest of the money. He tells her to get a job. Ya think!

Fan sends out her resume and keeps getting rejected. She finally lands at the same company Duan Ruo is at. Beija sees that they went to the same college. Fan (I have to give her credit on this) told her that they were not really friends, and she didn't want to work there.) Beija insists and hires Fan. Beija hired her because she knew that Fan would be quite the nemesis for her with Duan Ruo.

Fan again always acted like the victim, and she wasn't. She took projects from her, locked her up, smashed a bottle that was exclusive to the marketing team (Li Xiao found a duplicate for her), took more projects away from her by lying that she did them, and pitted her against the other co-workers. I mean she just went totally nuclear. It also didn't help that Beija was aiding her as well. Duan Ruo's only ally was Wu Ze who fell in love with her and wanted her to be his gf. He was always supportive and helping her but at some points he couldn't because the evidence would always fall in Fan's favor.

We still have Li Xiao now wanting Duan Ruo back and she kept telling him they were done. Wu Ze stepped in and told him that she was his gf now.

Things reach the final breaking point when Beija got back the director who was basically molesting the female employees. Beija got booted out because Fan set her and Duan Ruo up. She got what she wanted which was a higher position than Duan Ruo, but the price was her.

At the end of all of this craziness, it was that Duan Ruo, Wu Ze, Fan and Li Xiao had to all band together to take down the boss who was not only molesting woman but illegally doing things at the company. Duan Ruo and Wu Ze decided that they were going to travel the world. She eventually forgave Fan and Li Xiao and Duan Ruo just were best friends.

All and all I did enjoy watching it. It is entertaining that is for sure. But it really makes you wonder, how far you will go to help out your best friend.

Read More

Don't Waste Your Time!

I honestly thought after reading the synopsis that this was going to be a good drama. You have the whole story about the girl having a disease which affected her face and body and a merman. How can you not like this? After watching, I Don't Want to Fall in Love with Humans, I thought this would be another good one just like that drama, boy, was I wrong.

An Xin Er,'s disease was based off of Yu Sheng (merman). Both he and An Xin Er were singing/playing guitar on the beach one day and some boys started bullying him. An Xin Er defended him and thinking the boys were still attacking him, Yu Sheng scratched her and hence her getting ichthyosis.

Her parents were concerned for her because she was living a secluded life and had no friends. She always covered her face with a veil because she was self-conscious of how she looked from the disease. Enter Ling Zhi who her parents ask to be a companion of sorts for her. Both parents eventually die. An Xin Er's father asked Ling Zhi to take care of her and she eventually became his fiancée. Now, you know there is always some sinister plan. Ling Zhi wanted to have full control of the movie studio that the father left to her. He was given shares but in order for him to run it completely, he need her shares. Being all nice, An Xin Er gave him the shares and he had the control he needed. But we know she couldn't stay around, so while on a yacht celebrating their engagement she falls overboard. Yu Sheng saves her.

Follow all that. Sounds pretty good, right? It did until they both came out of the water into his half-sunk spaceship in the ocean. Talking about going downhill fast.

This drama felt like it was on a shoestring budget and cheaply done. CGI...horrible. The fake long and short wig that the ML wears are both horrible and do not become him. Sometimes I really had to listen to what the ML was saying because I felt like he had a mouth full of marbles. The FL (which I like in the General's Lady) I thought could bring this up a notch. No, she added nothing to it at all. Except wearing jackets over her clothes that were too big on her. The SML (which I liked in Fall in Love) was about the strongest in this drama and that not saying much.

Then when they were talking sometimes you felt like they were in a well of sorts. You NEVER see him be a merman again. Now, I'm only at episode 8 so, there is hope alive since there are 10 episodes left that he will again. But he has been on land for a year studying to be an actor and model. Say what? They were separated too for a year and when she finally sees him, she doesn't really ask him why he didn't go home or anything else.

Oh, there is an aunt that they got rid of pretty fast and sent her away to have surgery. Then a princess (who has been engaged to Yu Sheng since childhood) who comes to Earth but get this, leaves after she said that she doesn't like him, and he can get with An Xin Er since she knows he likes her. Wow!

Trust me, don't do it to yourself. Save the time to watch something other than this. I have tried up to 8 episodes to see some light at the end of the tunnel, but it keeps just staying dark.

So sad honestly for a drama that I felt had so much potential.

Read More