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HIStory5: Love in the Future taiwanese drama review
Completed
HIStory5: Love in the Future
1 people found this review helpful
by Faeriedust95
May 1, 2023
20 of 20 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

Nice effort, but disappointing

I honestly don’t know where to start. There were so many possibilities and they just fell flat or were completely ignored. Maybe I should talk pros and cons? Pros: Ummmm … the actors were good looking. The second couple had awesome chemistry. The music wasn’t bad. Cons: Storylines that were opened and not developed and conflicts that were ignored rather than dealt with. Overall disappointing and would not watch again.

In more detail (warning, spoilers ahead): The first couple (Johnny and Hai Yi). They did not have much chemistry and the acting was off. As far as the plot with this couple — it had a lot of potential but failed to go anywhere. Johnny came from the past and fast forwarded to the future to meet Hai Yi. Exciting possibilities here that were completely undeveloped. The only thing it was used for later was a plot device that might keep the couple apart. Because obviously Johnny wants to go back to his time to take care of his grandma. But she died and Hai Yi knew it and kept this from Johnny for no reason until Johnny attempted to go back to the past and Hai Yi told him. Why conceal this fact except to have a reason for Hai Yi to stop Johnny? Why not tell him as soon as you found out so your boyfriend could properly mourn her? Anyway, there’s no point to the time travel part of the story and it doesn’t appear to affect any other part of the story. So it’s pointless.

For the second couple we at least have some solid chemistry but I had a problem with a couple of major things. First, Vincent and Wynn are just starting their relationship when Vincent appears to be doing something morally ambiguous at best and downright sneaky and wrong at worst. Wynn calls him out on this behavior and plainly says they can’t be together if Vincent is the bad guy. Makes sense. Vincent is not actually the bad guy and is just pretending in order to help Hai Yi. Now, that isn’t bad by itself but the way they handled and then ignored these issues is weird and angsty for no reason. When Wynn questioned his lover about his behavior, rather than taking him into his confidence, Vincent ignored his concerns. When he saw his boyfriend was conflicted, rather than trying to show he wasn’t morally bankrupt, Vincent asked his new assistant to pretend they were now dating in order to make Wynn hate him. And while all of this was going on, other sources are telling Wynn that he needs to trust his lover. Why? Did they have a long standing relationship based on trust and mutual understanding? No, in fact their relationship was very new. So they in no way had enough relationship development to justify Wynn trusting Vincent implicitly. Nor did Vincent give him any reason to do so, he actually did the opposite by giving Wynn multiple reasons not to trust him. I can only assume that this was supposed to make it seem like these two really suffered in order to be together and to give them a conflict. But it felt manufactured and when Wynn finds out the truth, he doesn’t get angry and tell Vincent that he should have just told him the truth. Instead he begs forgiveness for not believing in him and they immediately jump into bed together. So there was a conflict but rather than deal with it appropriately they decided to just ignore the real issue and have a sexy scene and oh “I love you” how cute. Sorry, that annoys me. Why ignore the conflict you created?

Lastly, there is a real disparity in both relationships and it is discussed, and again, ignored. Wynn and Johnny are friends and while Wynn is bemoaning the fact that his boyfriend purposefully mislead him, he notes that it sucks to be dating your boss because they are the boss at work and the boss in the relationship. Rather than dealing with this in a reasonable mature way (like having a conversation with your lover and telling him that he cannot be the boss in the relationship that it has to be a full partnership), Wynn is advised by Johnny to just live with it because there is nothing they can do. Well for one, that mature conversation could take place where rules are set or, if that doesn’t work, you could break up because you don’t need to have a boss at home … anyway — just saying, brought up a conflict and ignored it. Twice. No further discussion needed apparently.

I would also like to discuss the obvious grooming going on the second relationship. Vincent is older than Wynn by I’m guessing at least 10 years based on the information in the story. Vincent is the boss, knows Wynn in a slightly stalker way, and then hires him as his assistant. Then he begins grooming his victim. Vincent (the boss) brings Wynn into his office and gives him lunch, eats with him, makes special time for him, treats him well, etc. So basically the guy in a position of authority going out of his way to approach his subordinate and in no time at all, he and the subordinate are dating. Not saying it was purposeful grooming, but since the characters themselves bring up the fact that Vincent is the boss at work and still the boss in their relationship, I think the comparison to grooming is valid.

While I can’t say the story was completely pointless, There was nothing about this series that stood out and nothing about the relationships that made the characters or romance feel special or worthy of a series devoted to them. I was disappointed overall. Would not watch again.
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